# (Recent) Historical question: When did USNavy ship caps become popular? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933 "2013-11-02T16:55:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/1 "2013-11-02T16:55:54Z")
I’m talking about the ball caps like [these](http://www.militarygifts.com/images/shipcaps.jpg), which feature the name, designation, and profile of the vessel. My dad wore them all the time from at least the 90s on, and now I see them everywhere. But when did they become popular among ex-sailors? I ask because I’m working on a story set in the summer of 1976 and one of the characters is a retired Navy man. It would be nice to be able to put one of those hats on his head (if they existed back then). ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/2 "2013-11-03T21:25:29Z")
Bump. Any sailors here from the 1970s or earlier? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/3 "2013-11-03T22:33:25Z")
I’ve no idea, but Rob Reiner [wears one](http://images2.static-bluray.com/reviews/1667_2.jpg) for the USS Coral Sea in the 1984 movie _This is Spinal Tap_. I wonder if that contributed to their popularity. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/4 "2013-11-03T22:56:36Z")
I enlisted in the early '80s, and we wore them in uniform then - no idea when that started. Let me ask around… ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/5 "2013-11-03T23:49:15Z")
Command ball caps were part of the shipboard working uniform in 1978 at least. It would also partly depend on when your guy retired - it’d be more likely he’d wear one if he wore it on the ship, although I don’t think there was anything preventing them from being sold to civilians. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/6 "2013-11-03T23:54:21Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > Command ball caps were part of the shipboard working uniform in 1978 at least. It would also partly depend on when your guy retired - it’d be more likely he’d wear one if he wore it on the ship, although I don’t think there was anything preventing them from being sold to civilians. I’m thinking more of a WWII/Korea vet, retired from Navy and from civilian career. I know my dad (Korea) wore them in the late 80s/90s, and they were new, not from his actual time in the Navy. But I don’t know where he got them… ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/7 "2013-11-04T00:10:54Z")
You can buy them for WWII ships now [online](http://militarybest.com/caps-u-s--navy.html). I’m not sure the market would have existed to make selling caps from ships where they weren’t part of the uniform to the general public profitable before the internet. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/8 "2013-11-04T00:41:30Z")
Hell, if anyone calls you on it tell them he had it custom-made 😉 ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/9 "2013-11-04T00:54:36Z")
I had a guy come into my shop wearing one from the USS Arizona. I asked him if he served on board. He said “I was on shore that day, but I lost a lot of friends”. He got free ice cream. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/10 "2013-11-04T01:11:44Z")
Here’s a photo of the Apollo 11 astronauts with their [baseball caps from the USS Hornet](http://www.ninfinger.org/models/vault2005/Apollo%2011%20Mobile%20Quarantine%20Facility%20KSC-69PC-484.jpg), so that puts the idea back to at least 1969. I have a vague memory of Bob Hope Christmas in Vietnam specials where he wore the appropriate cap for whatever aircraft carrier he happened to be visiting. Here’s one from [1965](http://c2.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/vietnam_9.jpg), but I can’t make out what the cap says. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/11 "2013-11-04T01:34:49Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Here’s a photo of the Apollo 11 astronauts with their [baseball caps from the USS Hornet](http://www.ninfinger.org/models/vault2005/Apollo%2011%20Mobile%20Quarantine%20Facility%20KSC-69PC-484.jpg), so that puts the idea back to at least 1969. Nice one! I’m curious to see what the earliest usage of the ship-profile on the cap is. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/12 "2013-11-04T01:39:36Z")
The Hornet caps were obviously custom-made for that event though. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/13 "2013-11-04T01:52:54Z")
All ball caps I’ve seen are made of nylon. That means they weren’t around before the early 60s? ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/14 "2013-11-04T02:55:06Z")
Based on the answers I’ve gotten so far, they were introduced sometime around 1968-70 - though some individual ships seem to have had them as far back as the '50s. > [@kunilou](#): > > I have a vague memory of Bob Hope Christmas in Vietnam specials where he wore the appropriate cap for whatever aircraft carrier he happened to be visiting. Here’s one from [1965](http://c2.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/vietnam_9.jpg), but I can’t make out what the cap says. That picture was taken aboard USS _Ticonderoga_ (CVA 14). Found a better copy of it - it’s still hard to make out what the cap says, but it appears to be “52.” I’m guessing it’s a cap from VA-52, which was part of _Ticonderoga_’s air wing at that time. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/15 "2013-11-04T10:50:43Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Based on the answers I’ve gotten so far, they were introduced sometime around 1968-70 - though some individual ships seem to have had them as far back as the '50s. > > That picture was taken aboard USS _Ticonderoga_ (CVA 14). Found a better copy of it - it’s still hard to make out what the cap says, but it appears to be “52.” I’m guessing it’s a cap from VA-52, which was part of _Ticonderoga_’s air wing at that time. IME, they became generally , i.e., not just for military, popular in the early 80s, which would coincide with **Dr. Strangelove’s** reference. IIRC, President Reagan wore one, and, with Top Gun and the military trending in style in the 80s, they got at least a nominal marketing boost. Before then, I hadn’t seen many, if any, but, I didn’t live in Navy areas. ---
**Author:** ![bahimes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@bahimes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bahimes)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/16 "2013-11-04T12:02:27Z")
In 1968, we were issued plain navy blue ball caps in boot camp. This was for working uniforms. The white “Dixie Cup” was the dress-up version, which was only ocassionally worn with the working uniform. Which were straight legged denim jeans, but many bought bell-bottoms that may or may not have been accepted aat work. As I recall, only ships had ball caps identifying the hull number and class (the profile) and if someone transferred from a ship to a shore station, the ship’s ball cap was NOT to be worn. So you are safe to use ball caps as you described for someone stationed on a ship. I also seem to recall that both officers and enlisted wore the ball caps shipboard, and on work detail ashore, but not while on liberty (off-duty). ---
**Author:** ![jonesj2205](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jonesj2205](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonesj2205)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-historical-question-when-did-usnavy-ship-caps-become-popular/672933/17 "2013-11-04T12:13:54Z")
There’s a place called the Ship’s Hatch that has been selling ship ball caps to anyone since at least the mid 80s. Their web site says they opened in 1973 with a different line of merchandise, so I’m not sure when they added ball caps.