There's a cavalry tradition of awarding a hat and spurs...
It's apparently quite formal now.
When I was in an armor unit, attached to an Infantry division, it was very ad-hoc.
Because we were tankers, the true descendants of actual cavalry, not so called calvary whom are the unwanted spawn of dragoons with aspirations above their station; we embraced what traditions we could that separated us from the sea of sky-blue all around us.
My platoon went out and bought the Stetsons, badges and braids for a dining out. Flagrantly violating the uniform regulations, we all wore our pants tucked into our tanker boots too!
This was back in the day when the dress uniforms were green instead of everyone looking like they were wearing dress blues.
The Colonel was amused, but we were firmly told to never do that again. So we wore them off duty.
When we did German tank school and earned those sexy black berets (that just anyone can wear today) we stopped wearing the cavalry hats. Ever notice that Rangers could tolerate some tankers wearing a black beret earned from the Heer, but as soon as anyone else got to wear them, they changed color?
I sold mine.
I kinda wish I hadn't now.
You don't notice how expensive a Stetson is when you're blowing the platoon fund on 20 of them, but when you price a replacement you've got to pay out of pocket for... yikes!
If anyone has a 7-3/8 sized one they're just gonna throw away anyways, lemme know!
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As a guy who enlisted as a 19D I participated in a spur ride. After OCS I branched Infantry. I fashioned a yellow cord for a Stetson I found sort cheap. It was my COP cover when no one above O-3 or E-8 was about.
ReplyDeleteSorry, blue cord. I fashioned a blue cord.
DeleteInfantry should have blue cords! Good work!
DeleteDuring the timeframe this hat originated from, it was just the hat. Your cord and badge changed with branch. Somehow the hat itself has become thought of as an cavalry exclusive thing...
I have an original Mexican made stetson that you can inherit, tannish brown color. Bought the largest one they had and thought I could stretch it a bit, did not work out.
ReplyDeleteI am 7-7/8 and it is small for me, suspect it might fit you fine. Been hanging on the wall for going on 25 years.
Let me know if interested.
I'll see if it fits. Pop an email to mcthag gmail.com and I'll give you my snailbox address.
Delete