The Germans definitely had them; I once saw a photo of the last Kaiser wearing this helmet. The uniform included a white cape too (that may have been the Kaiser’s addition; he liked capes). I THINK the regiment in question was the Kaiser’s bodyguard regiment, but I’m not sure.
The Germans also had the Death’s Head Hussars, whose tall fur dress hats were ornamented with a large silver skull plaque.
Speaking of Russia, the current Russian army “flying saucer” dress cap always gives me the giggles. They took a fairly standard type of visored dress cap and exaggerated it in size and curvature just enough to look like a small satellite dish jammed atop the head.
These pictures are from the tensest border crossing in the world, where India and Pakistan show their mutual disrespect by facing off in short pants and hats with fans on them.
Tripod doesn’t allow hotlinking to images. You gotta copy the shortcut’sURL to the address bar in a fresh new browser window/tab to see it.
However, good point about the beret in general – you just flop a piece of wool on top of your head, it provides no shading of the eyes, back of neck, or one ear, and it stifles the other ear.
But you look badass.
And the visor of US Air Force superior officers is kinda pushing it with the lightning-bolts motif. What, they’re saying “yep, I like to fly in severe thunderstorms”?
fetus mentions but the American DS/DI/MTI hat – the female style looks like a version of the Australian Army’s hat. And you don’t mess with THOSE guys.
Yep, that’s the one. It’s not quite as ridiculous as I remember, next to all these other hats… :o
My favourite so far are the skull hat and the Greek and Indian uniforms. Man, what were they thinking? “Hey, let’s incapacitate our enemies with laughter!” Huh.
2.) I spent some quality time with an American colonel in Paraguay (don’t ask). He would mutter under his breathe at the local military. “You’re ugly and your sergeant major dresses you funny.”
True, but that works best if the skull doesn’t look so GOOFY.
And this is probably outside of the OP’s intent, but how about some of the Germanic knights’ helmets from Alexander Nevsky? Like the “hand” helmet guys. I mean, sure, you look all menacing and inhuman looming over the ruins of a city, but your head looks like it’s trying to give me a high five.
These aren’t as funny as some we’ve seen, but unlike those these are not merely ceremonial hats but actual combat headgear: the mitznefet, or “clown hat.” Basically, it’s a piece of camo netting with some elastic sown in, making sort of a big, loose sack, and worn either over the helmet or directly on the head. They do a good job at what they’re supposed to do (and they’re much cheaper than Ghillies), but man do they look silly.
Of course, there’s silly, and there’s downright creepy.
Uh … I just want to make sure that everyone here understands the difference between ceremonial and work uniforms, right?
The “fans” on the Indian and Pakistani headgear is simply the end of the turban stiffened and fanned out. I doubt that this was ever done by soldiers in combat, but in ceremonial usage, a sovereign might have wanted to show off the quality of puggrees he provided for his soldiers, so, jerk that end up and stiffen it, so you can see the pattern.
I am not French, I’ve never been to Europe, I’ve never been in the military, and I’ve never chosen my wardrobe with the intent of looking badass.
I find the plain, unstiffened, unreinforced woollen beret to be a very handy and comfortable piece of headgear. It keeps your head warm but doesn’t steam your head (allowing a bit of cool air to remain inside), it keeps the wind from blowing your hair around, and when you pull it off, you don’t have hathead.
So, me, I love the beret.
However, those stiffened military berets with the tight headband and with one side jerked upward or downward and the top rounded against the shape of the head? Those are stupid looking.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned yet, the US Navy’s dixie cup hat for the enlisted man. (Note the enlisted woman gets a garrison cap, which is, IMNSHO, a vast improvement.)
It’s just so stupid-looking. Not even in a cool, or silly-fun way. Just embarassingly stupid.
As a Navy brat and a former serviceman, I haven’t the faintest clue what hat you’re referring to.
I do think the blue baseball cap with the yellow “NAVY” across it–and, for that matter, the whole “work” uniform with the blue shirt and khakis–doesn’t look like a military uniform at all to me. IMHO, a fleet of young men wearing those is a strange sight on a military base. They look like they should be pushing around a broom.
Then again, it seems like a very utilitarian and sensible uniform for working in, say, an engine room. Or swabbing the decks. So that works out, I guess.
But I have to! What’s the dope?
Lackland AFB has something called the Inter-American Air Forces Academy which has representatives from las fuerzas aereas from (seemingly) every Latin-American country. I couldn’t figure out which country it was, but one had a dark blue BDU uniform that looked absolutely badass. The color scheme just rocked my world. I haven’t the faintest which nation had that uniform. This is the USAF’s new blue BDU in action. The badass Latin-American blue BDUs in question have darker blue and camo prints more like the current AF/Army pattern, as opposed to the discombobulated-looking patterns in that picture. I don’t think it had any green, either. Just blue and grey.
At least those hats have some sort of ethnic excuse. That French naval hat looks like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man’s hat. c A hat like that says, “I’m a big Harold Ramis fan.”
