Posted on Dec 11, 2019
Why is the boonie cap so demonized in the army?
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Seriously I wanna know. Mainly from you senior leadership and your mentality when it comes to this specific headgear, or even as to why it's frowned upon in the field when it's clearly authorized to be worn in the field.
Also if you are just going to bash me or make smart ass remarks because I'm asking this question, then don't even leave a comment. Thanks
Also if you are just going to bash me or make smart ass remarks because I'm asking this question, then don't even leave a comment. Thanks
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 351
As for me when I deployed I wore the boonie hat with the COLLAR TURNED UP when outside. It was a perfect desert uniform, but everyone else (AF) had the collar cut down because it was too wide:idiots. The booniehat was the perfect cover
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I have to agree with CSM. I guess ok old school also. Soldiers never want to wear it correctly. Soldiers shape it this way or the other. Then your day is spent telling soldiers to correct the hat and then it’s an argument or some negative feed back.
Yes I know the same can be said about the PC, same issue. Just grab the head gear shake it and put it on. Just a crusty old retiree here.
Yes I know the same can be said about the PC, same issue. Just grab the head gear shake it and put it on. Just a crusty old retiree here.
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I think the Boonie Cap (aka Sun Hat) is an acquired taste, you either like it or you dont. As a MSC officer I have been deployed in med and non med units. Have seen (usually CSMs) in both where someone didnt like the boonie cap so it was frowned upon in formations or in my last deployment to Bagram the CSM and Bdg cdr more or less outlawed it. Occasionally the army gets something right. The boonie cap was designed to keep the sun off your head and neck. Yeah I know its not perfect, not every mission outside the wire your going to wear it but in general its a sinceable piece of headgear. I have never cared for leaders making a decision purely based on there own personal preference.
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Back in the '70s I was stationed at Bragg. As a matter of routine, guys wore the boonie cap in the field, but they were hard to come by. My mother had been a seamstress and taught me how to sew and repair my own clothes when I was young, because she didn't have the time. I rented a sewing machine from Post Rental and used to tailor guys' BDUs and such for cheap - like $5 a set. Someone asked me if I could make a boonie cap. I measured one up, took an old pair of fatigues and some really stiff cardboard, and made one. It looked great! After that, I got flooded with orders and my spare time was spent making boonie caps. I got $5 apiece for them and they paid for all my drinking time down on Hay Street. LOL!!
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The only thing we were authorized to wear in the field was a helmet complete with chin strap. The boonie was OK to wear on the FOB as long as we were not under attack, then the helmet was preferred by all. I was not a fan of the beret taking the place of the patrol cap. It felt disrespectful to the units that were authorized the beret. And I thought it made me look silly.
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Isn't that head gear authorized for Special Forces/Recon/Seals for example?!
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Great question and I love reading the comments. I always wore mine while in Kuwait. It worked much better than the patrol cap keeping the sun off your head and neck and folded up nicely in your pocket. For whatever reason, our CSM hated it and very few people wore it. I wore mine so often as a going away gift, I was given an embroidered boonie cap and a hat rack.
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I love the bonnie cap. Honestly I have no idea why the boonie cap is demonzed. I think its one of the greatest caps that is out there. I can say maybe its mostly the old school guys/women. No offense to
them. I get it though there are things that I like to keep traditional as well. I guess you can say that the word demonized should be change too frown upon.
them. I get it though there are things that I like to keep traditional as well. I guess you can say that the word demonized should be change too frown upon.
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Don't know about that . . . in Vietnam most regulations went "out the window" as far as proper dress was concerned. I was even awarded my Bronze Star while standing on a concrete basketball court in Nha Trang, wearing pretty sloppy-looking fatigues and my boonie hat!
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The long and short is that it is a crumpled mess and looks to individualized ie not uniform. That said I was a sniper and always worn mine in the field.
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I never had an issue with Bonnie covers or watch caps. Boony covers protect the rats from the sun. As do the watch caps
Of course I enjoyed over ruling the 1st sht
Of course I enjoyed over ruling the 1st sht
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We never had a problem with being allowed to wear the Boonie hats, but I was in Desert Shield Desert Storm and if we weren’t wearing the Boonie, we were wearing the Kevlar!
I guess not wearing it properly was a bit of the issue. As one other person commented about wanting to wear it Australian style that defeats the purpose of having the brim to protect your face, neck, and ears from being scorched. I was a senior NCO then, and some of the younger troops would tease me about how I wore my cap because I wore it with the brim straight all the way around. But then some of those younger enlisted individuals had such badly burnt necks and burnt ears that they got hell from the Top and Company Commander regarding the design and proper wearing of the Boonie hat. By the way, our Top and some other senior NCO‘s were Vietnam veterans and they would get on the young enlisted also about how to wear the damn hat!
So my question to you is why is it so important that you wear it? Is it because you can wear it in whatever fashion you want or is it really for the purpose of protecting your face neck and ears from the blistering sun??
I guess not wearing it properly was a bit of the issue. As one other person commented about wanting to wear it Australian style that defeats the purpose of having the brim to protect your face, neck, and ears from being scorched. I was a senior NCO then, and some of the younger troops would tease me about how I wore my cap because I wore it with the brim straight all the way around. But then some of those younger enlisted individuals had such badly burnt necks and burnt ears that they got hell from the Top and Company Commander regarding the design and proper wearing of the Boonie hat. By the way, our Top and some other senior NCO‘s were Vietnam veterans and they would get on the young enlisted also about how to wear the damn hat!
So my question to you is why is it so important that you wear it? Is it because you can wear it in whatever fashion you want or is it really for the purpose of protecting your face neck and ears from the blistering sun??
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I was in the intelligence corps. Quite often, once we ere dropped off by the ground vehicles or choppers near our AO and the sound of the engines had faded into the distance, K-pots went in the bottom of the ruck and the boonie caps came out. No one was coming to see us without asking for the grid coords to our hide site so it worked for us.
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I remember the 20th EN Bde in 2008 in Iraq hated the boogie cap. Kind of made little to no sense to me I figure they'll be a bunch of skin cancer from that. Though on a deployment in Kuwait out at Camp Buehring the wind tended to make boonie cap wearing impractical so I stuck with the patrol cap. There is something to the variations in wearing the boonie that tends to give SGMs the heebie-jeeblies. Soldiers jazz up their patrol caps so no accounting for that reason either.
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I wore the boonie hat in 1969 while stationed at a NATO special weapons site in West Germany. The NATO site was located deep into the German forest so we were isolated from other military installations and towns at our site. We had to wear that ugly baseball style cap during guard mount inspection with our steel pot helmets and liners which we carried. When on duty in the special weapons exclusion zone I changed
my headgear over to the boonie hat which I still have bringing it back to the states.
my headgear over to the boonie hat which I still have bringing it back to the states.
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MSG Mike OHandley
In my day that was not the boonie cap. The boonie cap was what recon used to wear. It was a brimmed cap with a shorter bill and squared off cover. Not like a Marine cap but shorter with a brim shorter but wider than a conventional fatique cover. I used to manufacture them in the barracks and a lot of guys bought them. They paid $5 each for them and I knocked them out from cutting up used BDUs. Guys would only wear them in the field. Our cap around garrison was the beret because we were airborne. It was the '70s.
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SPC Woody Bullard
MSG Mike OHandley - We called it a boonie hat in the 558th in '69 but it is a different style than the boonie cap you are talking about in the '70s. The only photo I have wearing mine with the olive drab fatigues in '69.
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Insert smart ass remark here. We wore them in the field at Polk as OPFOR. We wore the OG ball cap when in garrison. I'm all for anything that better keeps the sun off my melon.
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Heck if I know. The only time this came up was on deployment. We were issued the boonie and told not to wear it. One day, the BC and CSM came in wearing it. The next day, I did too. I was immediately chastised: “You think just because the commander and CSM wore it, you can too?” Um… yeah. That’s exactly how that works. Not a fight that I won, nor was it even worth my time. I’m pretty sure they were trying to get me to quit.
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As a Marine (outside looking in) I would say that it is based on the same reason you decided to give everyone a "Beret". Which, to me, is the same reason children get a "participation" trophy. So that nobody's feelings will be hurt. Nobody will feel "SPECIAL" Uniformity is wonderful, up to a point. It seems as if they purposely took away the visible pride (not that rainbow kind) and and distinction the Green Beanies and Rangers EARNED and displayed through their DISTINCTIVE headgear. Why the Army dislikes distinctive headgear and distinctive effort I don't know. I believe that the Army dislikes people who make an effort to be "All They Can Be" and rewards passive conformity instead. In other words. Please do not attempt to excel. Please do not attempt to appear aggressive or competitive. Just be good little "Cannon Fodder". After all, it is all about numbers, not about individual effort and esprit de corps. We (Marines) all look alike and all look like we are in the "Boonies" or are all prepared for conflict at ALL times because we are ALL Marines and are ALL wanting to be in the thick of things. The basic mission of EVERY Marine is a basic rifleman. Our primary Occupational Speciality is BRINGER OF DEATH. We are ALWAYS dressed for war. The only reason we need "Boonie Hats" is because it is purposeful for the situation at hand and we always train for ANY and EVERY situation at hand. We do NOT look at field training as a stinking "Camping Trip".
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I say just wear what you are comfortable with and if it is the boonie cap, so be it. I know I prefer them.
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SSG Thompson, the Boonie hat may have prevented the Skin Cancer on my neck and ears. I fought with every CSM and Battalion/Brigade Commander I served with in Iraq over this subject. A big difference from Rangers. Numerous deployments to the desert with over 63 months from Libya to Turkmenistan and had to give up the Boonie for 16 months in Iraq.
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Don't know, but I still have my old boonie hat fron 'Nam (believe it or not) and it's one of my most prized pieces of headgear!
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I'd be curious how often it is actually an issue. DA Pam 670-1 states, among other things, that it is authorized "in field environments when the advanced combat helmet is not worn" It is true that I have been retired for a good stretch now, but almost always "in field environments" I recall the helmet as the only headgear.
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I saw nothing wrong with wearing the boonies, but did have a problem with Soldiers shaping it to make a fashion statement (using a glue/water mixture to iron and completely stiffen the whole brim).
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It's interesting there's an issue. As a kid I remember seeing recruiter posters for the Army and Navy showing Rangers and SEALS in boonies!
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Suspended Profile
Maybe if those naysayers could be teleported to the future and find themselves sitting in the office of a dermatologist, they might change their minds.
i was ARMY NATIONAL GUARD 1981 to 1987 never had one issued we had the patrol cap or steal pot helmet in the field when not in the field it was the patrol cap with ear flaps and the uniform was the BDU uniform never had a boonie issued during my active dates of service but on my own time i bought some and wore them out if we got issued them i would have loved to ware it over the heavy ass steal pot i was in the infantry 11-B M-60 team most of my enlistment until i made SPC E-4 for less than 5 min. my LT pinned me with CPL hard stripes made me A JR NCO
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I retired as a Senior SFC, with the 11B mos, I to thought out of the box and would choose comfortable and functional over , in the rear with the gear, uniform policy. Most of the time the one yelling about the uniform was the one that never slept in the field. I applaud NCOs that think of their Soldiers over a good NCOER. Hooah!
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When you understand why one of the most popular foods in the world, pizza, most often is round, in a square box and cut into triangles, you will understand this. In the Marines, it was Silkies. Although, if one is to evaluate the level of exposure that comes with these shorts and public affairs, I get it. It's more of 50 percent in the one hand and half in the other.
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Thank god our Battalion CSM authorized it for wear in the cantonment and field training area. It does help big time in not getting your face and neck from getting burnt.
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The booniehat is is designed for the protection of your skin so that it’s not fully exposed to the sun. All colors and ethnic skin colors get burned from the sun. So, no out ranks general safety, if you feel your protecting your troops by wearing a booniehat then do so. Make it part of the uniform of the day. And when you get bashed you can always use the general safety excuse. The booniehat is fantastic head gear and should be worn in high sun environments.
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I don't understand the issue. All the other services limits the wearing of the hat. THE MARINES: The MCCUU garrison cap will be worn in garrison. The MCCUU field (boonie) cap may be worn during field-type exercises and operations onlyThe MCCUU garrison cap will be worn in garrison. The MCCUU field (boonie) cap may be worn during field-type exercises and operations only.
THE AIR FORCE: Deployed Airmen, or Airmen as authorized by MAJCOM, may wear the OCP boonie (campaign/floppy) hat with the Desert Flight Duty Uniform when theater conditions dictate.
THE AIR FORCE: Deployed Airmen, or Airmen as authorized by MAJCOM, may wear the OCP boonie (campaign/floppy) hat with the Desert Flight Duty Uniform when theater conditions dictate.
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Because it is associated with Vietnam. I served during the Vietnam war and I'm still hated for my service.I have old bags my age tell me all the time "My father served during Vietnam, I hate my father and I hate you" ! Girls back then wouldn't talk to us or dance with us. They would hide in doorways and when we walked by would hit us in our backs and runoff shouting bad name to us. So I never married,why marry someone who hated me for my service.
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It is a subject I know nothing about and was not aware that the boonie cap was demonized.
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I don't know. When I was an enlisted soldier I wore a boonie cap whenever I could. I thought it was good headgear.
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SFC said it best, comes down to CSM’s preference. I convinced mine that it provided better protection from sun exposure AND while training troops on camouflage techniques it gave a better broken profile making it harder for the enemy to identify the Soldiers. He smiled and said that was a great, well thought out, bull shit answer so yes, he would approve everyone wearing the boonie
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