Looking for a short brim boonie hat.

[gonzaleznj]

looking for it in MARPAT woodland and desert
is this style even regulation?

its in this clip about 30 seconds in.
http://www.youtube.com/v/OYZk10zwhLc

[gonzaleznj]

no wait here it is...
http://www.militarygearhq.com/c1044-l.jpg

wait is that even a short brim ?

[Lerch]

Didn't look like it...looks for formed then short.

But if it is, he may have just cut off two rings and sewn the edge back on.

[richard.hughes]

1st post w00t.

We cut em down usually, they are all long brimmed.

[gonzaleznj]

so is thats a custom hat in the vid?

[richard.hughes]

so is thats a custom hat in the vid?

Possibly, its common practice to get them cut them trimmed at a local sew shop or yourself with a knife as mine is.

I'll answer this way, I have never seen them off the shelf that small at any PX or clothing store on base.


Edited to add: The smaller bonnie covers have smaller brims, the picture above *appears* to be a small size which would explain the small brim.

[jeffe]

Short brimmed desert MARPAT

[GETSOME]

This is a maybe a stupid question,but why cut the brim down,dont you need as must protection from the sun as possible?

[gafkiwi]

I don't know about yank ones but in the NZ army our standard (widebrim) are issued army wide and the short brim are now ony issued to infantry. In heavy rain the brims "droop" and they can block your field of view. We mainly wear them to break up the out line of the head with the brim just big enough to keep the direct or overhead sun out of the eyes.
Alot of its in the way its worn and its another bit of kit that alot of our guys show a bit of individuality with.

[David]

like gafkiwi said, the purpose of trimming the brim is to reduce drooping when it rains, its not authorized to modify your uniform in this way, but it really depends on your command guidance on whether or not they'll authorize it, no real purpose to do it in iraq, because it doesn't really rain that often, and your always wearing a helmet anyway, so besides looking cool on the fob, not much point behind it. and as far as i know you can't buy them like that, you just get them trimmed at the sew shop.

[gafkiwi]

The wide brims we have are that crap that they droop with out getting wet, they have a thin piece of plastic in the brim that once bent or buckled are impossible to reshape.

[INCONEL]

Larry Chambers and Gary Linderer wearing short- brimmed tiger's @ Camp Evans, RVN. (Jim Schwartz in the beret)

[Lerch]

This is a maybe a stupid question,but why cut the brim down,dont you need as must protection from the sun as possible?
Depending on the sunlight, the brim can sometimes be useless. That's why the Canadian Forces (and now British) have been putting neck flaps in the hats.

[saberlancer]

Well,this is what we can buy in our base shop in the SAF(Singapore).
But not many people wears them.
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4115/sc052biguf5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Shot at 2007-07-29
*Pic taken from army online shop.

[jimmyboots]

guy might be from Oki. Mamasans can work magic on your gear out there. I had one cut down my boonie back when they only came with wide brims. Nobody could tell the difference.

[zonk]

i tried to do this with my desert boonie but it wasnt well looked upon by the chain of command...later on we got the order to not mess with brims of our hats....

[sterlingsman]

Our "Pongo's", (Uk Marine turm for a British Army Soldier), do that to there Jungle/Desert hats too. I've found out that they do it in the jungle so that their view is not impaired in the dence jungle, but in the desert, apart from when they cut down the brim they end up getting their necks burnt, and hence the UK putting a Foreign Legion style flap on the back, and just because they (Pongo's) wanna look Gucci (Royal Marine turm for looking good) and or like SF's!. But still don't know why, oh why oh why!.
:)

[GETSOME]

Our "Pongo's", (Uk Marine turm for a British Army Soldier), do that to there Jungle/Desert hats too. I've found out that they do it in the jungle so that their view is not impaired in the dence jungle, but in the desert, apart from when they cut down the brim they end up getting their necks burnt, and hence the UK putting a Foreign Legion style flap on the back, and just because they (Pongo's) wanna look Gucci (Royal Marine turm for looking good) and or like SF's!. But still don't know why, oh why oh why!.
:)
So they look good with a burnt neck :roll: looks like its more style then comfort.

[Beer Monster]

Our "Pongo's", (Uk Marine turm for a British Army Soldier), do that to there Jungle/Desert hats too. I've found out that they do it in the jungle so that their view is not impaired in the dence jungle, but in the desert, apart from when they cut down the brim they end up getting their necks burnt, and hence the UK putting a Foreign Legion style flap on the back, and just because they (Pongo's) wanna look Gucci (Royal Marine turm for looking good) and or like SF's!. But still don't know why, oh why oh why!.
:)

If your profile is to be believed than take a look around, plenty of Bootnecks do it and vice versa plenty of Pongo's leave them alone.

The technique it to get it short enough to look ally but not so short that you get burnt ...... it's a fine line and one that takes years to perfect. Once you look good half the battle is won.

Besides these days chances are you'll be wearing your battle bowler and will get a sun burnt neck anyway. It wouldn't be the same if there weren't a few sunburnt Brits about, it's tradition.

P.S.

Pongo is deemed to be a Naval term although if arrsepedia is to be believed it could actually be RAF.

Gucci is a term used by all 3 services.

[sterlingsman]

Yes, originally it was but I should of meant "now" speaking, although I have friends in all services I still think the term "Pongo" is most fitting of the Army the most for obvious reasons:).

[Beer Monster]

Yes, originally it was but I should of meant "now" speaking, although I have friends in all services I still think the term "Pongo" is most fitting of the Army the most for obvious reasons:).

No denying that.

[sterlingsman]

Yes, sorry, Bootnecks (the younger one's) do seem to do that and even cover their helmet's like Para's too? (why do they?). This sort of "I'm an old sweat" is in all services and countries, but like it or not some people like it and some people don't, and me, well I give up sometimes trying to fit in the middle somewhere!.:roll: