12-22-2005, 06:03 PM
Cory Graff, who works at the Seattle Museum of Flight, sent me this. Most of know the first bit, but the last paragraph is new to me:
"The WWII Army Air Corps hats were issued to the officers. Each officer had it as part of his uniform. Fighter pilots (the guys who became aces) were officers, but usually preferred leather helmets, stowing their cap during flight. As a result, it stayed relatively pristine, stiff, and high—like the one seen in that link on your site.
For the officers in the bombers, it was different. Commonly when you see a photo of a Boeing B-17 crew or a Consolidated B-24 crew, you’ll see a bunch of crewmen gunners (Sergeants and airmen and stuff like that) in some serious puffy leather and cold weather gear. And four guys with those hats are the officers. They were Lieutenants, mostly. They were the pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, and navigator. They commonly were in the nose of the plane where it was relatively warm (relatively) and wore the hats while flying. When the flyer was first issued the hat, it was stiff and high but over time, the ear phones the bomber crewmen would wear (and sometimes flak helmets) would crush the hat down. Some guys took out the lining inside to make wearing the earphones more comfortable and, as a side bonus, it accelerated the breakdown process. I’ve enclosed a little photo of a guy with a hat in the middle of its destruction.
Of course, having the “50 mission crush” look to your hat was the sign of a veteran flyer. Fifty missions was a heck of a lot, your chances of living through ever 25 bomber missions over Europe were pretty low. Anyway, soon, everyone was doing it—not just the bomber guys, but new guys, fighter pilots, and stateside nobodies. It was a real fashion thing.
But here’s the little detail that might be important to part of the song… It was cool to have the sides of your hat all smashed. But it was very uncool to have the front droop down or collapse. As a result, many of these guys put in a piece of cardboard or a playing card on the inside in the front to keep it all going upward. So this hockey card (doing a bit of time travel I guess) is worked into the front of the 50 mission cap as a stiffener."
"The WWII Army Air Corps hats were issued to the officers. Each officer had it as part of his uniform. Fighter pilots (the guys who became aces) were officers, but usually preferred leather helmets, stowing their cap during flight. As a result, it stayed relatively pristine, stiff, and high—like the one seen in that link on your site.
For the officers in the bombers, it was different. Commonly when you see a photo of a Boeing B-17 crew or a Consolidated B-24 crew, you’ll see a bunch of crewmen gunners (Sergeants and airmen and stuff like that) in some serious puffy leather and cold weather gear. And four guys with those hats are the officers. They were Lieutenants, mostly. They were the pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, and navigator. They commonly were in the nose of the plane where it was relatively warm (relatively) and wore the hats while flying. When the flyer was first issued the hat, it was stiff and high but over time, the ear phones the bomber crewmen would wear (and sometimes flak helmets) would crush the hat down. Some guys took out the lining inside to make wearing the earphones more comfortable and, as a side bonus, it accelerated the breakdown process. I’ve enclosed a little photo of a guy with a hat in the middle of its destruction.
Of course, having the “50 mission crush” look to your hat was the sign of a veteran flyer. Fifty missions was a heck of a lot, your chances of living through ever 25 bomber missions over Europe were pretty low. Anyway, soon, everyone was doing it—not just the bomber guys, but new guys, fighter pilots, and stateside nobodies. It was a real fashion thing.
But here’s the little detail that might be important to part of the song… It was cool to have the sides of your hat all smashed. But it was very uncool to have the front droop down or collapse. As a result, many of these guys put in a piece of cardboard or a playing card on the inside in the front to keep it all going upward. So this hockey card (doing a bit of time travel I guess) is worked into the front of the 50 mission cap as a stiffener."
