Well done, Lt. Col. Crandall. I honor your service to our country. Sounds like you really earned the MoH. Now, um… could you take your hat off, please? Is this proper behavior during any indoor medal ceremony, let alone in the White House and by the hand of the President?
I guess if Dubya didn’t mind, I shouldn’t, but still…
pssst…wrong forum.
I don’t think so. It’s a factual question, not a pit.
When I graduated from Basic Training it was an outdoor ceremony - we did not remove headdress.
Not sure if there is any relevance, but there it is…
It’s a uniform hat. Specifically a cavalry hat
You’re right, I was wondering if it would be pit or IMHO and the whole time I missed the “Is this proper behavior…” part of the question.
Carry on.
US D&D regs say remove headdress whenever one is indoors.
I think the fact that the hat is quite distinctive - i.e. it’s a cavalry hat only particular to his branch/unit, might have something to do with it. US armed forces hearddress isn’t quite as varied as commonwealth armies.
I don’t know if he’s wearing the hat per regulations or not. Army regs are much different from the Navy ones that I’m familiar with. But I was strut by how…unprofessional the hat looked myself
I can guarantee you that the ceremony was planned and rehearsed beforehand. I’d guess that the Col. was “under arms” (cavalry sword) and therefore properly remained covered.
When I was reenlisted (many moons ago) in the US Navy, the ceremony was held indoors. (Aboard ship.) I had to wear my cover for the ceremony.
The idea is that the importance of the ceremony is solemn enough, and of high enough importance, that you are required to be in full uniform (which includes the cover). The spectators not directly involved may or may not be covered, as decided by the individuals in charge of setting up the ceremony.
Ordinarily you remove your hat when indoors unless you are armed and a cartridge belt is “armed.” There could be different rules for medal cermeonies or the ceremony was out doors…
That hat is awesome.
Dungeons & Dragons?
Actually, the Armed Forces regs/instructions don’t say it that way. There are exceptions, provided for in the rules, for remaining covered indoors. There’s the ever-popular reporting for non-judicial punishment, there’s the also popular while bearing arms, among other exceptions.
Hey, what do you suppose the odds are that even a field grade military officer is going to go into a formal ceremony with the Commander in Chief without at least a minor little get together with a protocol officer from the Department of the Army?
Tris
I don’t want this to sound too snarky, but isn’t there at least a theoretical possibility that the President was enamored of the hat and thought it’d be great if the colonel wore it? You know, Texas, cowboy hat, etc etc?
(And by the way, I am just astounded at what he did to merit him that award. There’s guts, and then there’s Bruce Crandall kind of guts.)
LTC (then MAJ) Crandall was with the First Cavalry Division. The Cav people were very good troops in the field, especially the people who made up the division in 1965 before the replacements started pouring into the units deployed to Vietnam. In garrison and in latter years they started picking up some unattractive traits and tried to pawn themselves off as an elite unit – doing stuff like wearing spurs (that jingle-jangle-jingle) and adopting a black felt campaign hat with a cavalry yellow cord. Apparently they have gotten a little compulsive about the hat. Other outfits may regard the spurs and hat thing as a bit pretentious and self promoting and unbecoming the sense of work-a-day modesty and quiet self-worth that is properly the hallmark of heavy infantry dogfaces.
The hat is the mark of a cavalryman and as silly as it seems to some the cavalry wear it as a badge of honor. If it makes them happy, more power to them.
Come to think of it, it looks like the Robert Duvall character’s hat from my favorite scene in Apocalypse Now. Only he didn’t have nearly as many pins, badges ‘n’ stuff on his.
Speaking as an eighteen year member of the army I would say that LTC Crandall can wear whatever he wants. If he wanted to wear a tu-tu and one of those beanies with the propeller I wouldn’t mind. On a more factual basis I would say that when we are in formation if it is indoors we wear our hats and pretend it’s outside. I have seen plenty of people get called to the front of a formation and receive awards, get promoted etc while wearing a cover inside.
If LTC Crandall’s story seems familiar, Greg Kinnear played him in the movie We Were Soldiers.
It’s the same hat. As Spavined Gelding mentioned, in Vietnam the Air Calvary adopted the accoutrements of the calvary of the Indian Wars of the late 1800s, including the black Stetson. I believe Crandall as well as Duvall’s character were members of the 7th Cavalry, the same unit as George Armstrong Custer.