Camouflage Bushhats,Boonies,Cowboys and Berets of the Vietnam war.

[kammo man]

Sorry ..how about an out of focus 10 gallon hat .........

[kammo man]

And the inside .

The sweat band is made of plastic ..thick plastic ...designed to make the sweat run in rivers down the back of your neck.

[kammo man]

Here is a tiger stripe cowboy hat .

Its quite early war judging by the shape and sewing style.

I used to think this was Thai pattern but after looking at it long and hard its got to be a Viet produced hat and pattern.

What do you think?

[kammo man]

And the side ..........


This cowboy came from the Rose bowl ........

[kammo man]

What is cool is the liner ....its camouflage parachute fabric ..a collectors dream piece .

[kammo man]

How about a shot without my 6 pack in view ?

[kammo man]

Here is a nice Invisible ERDL cowboy , now this is more like a Thai cut.

[kammo man]

From the top , this hat has 4 large air vents plus the nice thick plastic sweat band.

[kammo man]

And the side showing the arcs .

[kammo man]

And the inside showing the red lining.

Years ago I read in an AfriKa Corps collection book about tests done in the 1930s about fabrics used in development of the M-41 tropical uniform.
Apparently red fabric was best suited for some reason for head gear and thats why you always find red fabric in the M-41 cap !!!
Now it might be Hong Kong Phooey but maybee some German FFL man remembered this and introduced it at some time in the Indo China war ?
Who knows .....but fashion and styles are something that did drive head gear styles, you will notice the cowboy hat was less used and became more of a badge to sat I did that ..I was there as the war progressed.
You hardly ever find Rip Stop ERDL cowboys for this reason.

[kammo man]

One last one ,
A very dark green ,almost brown cowboy that came from a man who worked for the USO , he was given this after a show as a thank you .
Its brittle and very thin and the sweat band is crinkley plastic.

[kammo man]

And the inside ............


Thats it for me on the cowboys .....one last shot though ...

All cowboys were very labour intensive with hours of work in each one ..no wonder they went out of fashion ...the poor sewers who made them probably gave a sigh of relief when they finally went out of fashion.

owen

[Beau Brummel.]

Very Nice!

I know what you mean about that tiger fabric. I'm pretty certain It Is Thai though but In a different colorway. If you look at the Speicher thread I put up, the 'Nail' embroidered boonie Is made of the same cloth. As speicher was operating out of Thailand a lot of the time I feel It was made there. The clincher for me was the funny, green hessian liner one sees In some Thai made hats.

Hope that helps Mate,

Guy.

[kammo man]

Ok I will take that Guy , but pre 66 ?

[Beau Brummel.]

No, not pre 66; 68/69 time frame but Identical cloth.

Yours, Guy.