Ah, so you’re familiar with the Seabees, then.
When this thread popped up, I realized that I never answered your question. Evidently, if you served and you were honorably discharged, you are a veteran. He actually didn’t even serve his whole enlistment. As he tells it, at the time, if you were in the reserves and you got sent overseas for your job, your enlistment would be paused. If you had a year left, when you got back you still have a year left.
I think he had like a year and a half left and when he got back, the Vietnam Conflict was beginning to be over. His unit? (I have no idea what things are called in the military.) had been disbanded and b/c his time left was so short no other one would pick him up. So, honorably discharged.
He did the whole boot camp "get your head shaved, run til you puke’ stuff.
We have pics of him and his mom at the AFB, so it’s not made up.
Sorry it took me two years to get back to you 
I am a five year Army vet, no combat, cold war only. I am grateful for that. I don’t mind people wearing them, hell they earned them.
I do have a problem with them wearing them indoors. I was raised that gentalmen don’t wear hats indoors. All vets were trained that one does not wear his/her cover indoors unless under arms so they should know better. But I feel this way about all hats on men indoors. No hijack intended.
Who was badmouthing Veterans? Lighten up, Francis.
From Good Morning, Vietnam
I wear the hat now at the age of 66. I was a Dust-Off medic in Cu Chi 1969 -70. For many years I could not say the word “Vietnam”. Now I wear the hat hoping to meet someone that was “there”. We only wanted to live long enough to make it back to the “world”. Alive.
Well now - he didn’t say the ice cream IN the cone was free.
When my dad wore his veteran hat, it was in hopes of making a connection w/ another veteran. Much as he dislikes people in general, he has fraternal respect for any and all vets.
I’m cool with it. I think the hats are ugly but just cause I don’t like them doesn’t mean I think other vets shouldn’t wear them if they want. Hell they earned it.
My uncle worked on C-119’s at Ellington during that period–so he had to belong to the Reserves. He’d done his own active duty during the Korean War–fixing jets in Japan. On the way back from the yearly service, the plane crashed; the mechanics riding in the cargo bay bailed out but the flight crew died. My uncle found another job since he didn’t want to fly any more. Even the “safest” duty can have risks.
The only vets I see in real life (as apposed to assholes on the internet) wearing those caps tend to be old guys in wheelchairs in the Medical Center. Good for them
Re those who wear them all the time and not just on holidays I think it’s a last gasp way for old guys to say “I mattered” instead of just being a shuffling old nobody. I would never do that even if I served but I understand the motivation. People want to be acknowledged.
Interesting that this thread has popped up again. Turns out my youngest grandson has a bit of hero worship going on and wants to question me endlessly on my upcoming visit next week. Since he’s such an admirer, I bought two Seabee Vietnam Vet ball caps that we can wear while I’m there. I won’t wear it anyplace else, but hey, the kid thinks I’m a hero. :o
Post #4 11/11/11
I was in B&N the other day and saw an old fellow wearing one so I shook his hand and thanked him for his service. Then he thanked me for mine, based on the US Navy Vet bb cap I was wearing.
I think if some older person has served in WWII, Korea, or Viet Nam, they can wear anything they want. I believe those who wear those hats.
Now, younger folks who talk tough? They’re full of crap, generally.
There must be some level of relationship between these folks and those who have “Cherokee princess” ancestors.
This. Beyond some stories for the kids when they asked, my grandfather didn’t talk about his WWII or Korea service, nor did my stepfather talk about his WWII service. My dad almost never speaks of his service in Vietnam. My cousin, who did five tours for the current mess in Afghanistan, Iraq, and someplace she can’t tell me, *never *speaks of her service. Her husband doesn’t mention his deployment during the Gulf War. (But we give him hell because he’s NAVY and we’re an Army family… :D)
My FIL has a couple of these hats. He was career Army - started out at the very bottom, retired as Lt Colonel, with two tours of Vietnam (and “environs”, allegedly) and a lot of interesting Cold War logistical work in Europe along the way (also a stint at training Rangers and, later, selling official arms to the South Koreans).
On the one hand it’s clear to me he wears the hats largely because he enjoys the attention and ego-stoking they garner him. On the other hand, he’s in his 70s now, he’s fucking earned it and it harms no one, so why not?
My dad and I went to Bikeweek in Daytona for many years, it was a tradition that I got him a patch for his vest each time. One year I got him a Tet Survivor patch, he was reluctant to put it on because he NEVER talked about his four tours, it was amazing the number of random guys who stopped him to talk about it. He said later it helped a lot, made him feel less alone with the memories.
I guess it’s the choce of the veteran.
My grandfathers would no more have worn such things in public than they would have worn dresses, but they were WWII veterans. The veneration-of-the-military thing wasn’t as popular then.
My maternal grandfather was happy to talk about his time in the war with his wide-eyed grandson. He knew I liked hearing about it, and of course he was proud of having served in combat, and maybe talking about it helped him deal with the nightmares (and he did have them.) But publicly bragging about it was absolutely not happening.
Four tours? He deserves whatever good things came to him.
He spent a lot of my childhood in Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines, so I didn’t know him well. Got to know him when we were both older, he was a good dad and a nice man. He died at age 73 from some weird cancer they couldn’t explain… so I figure Vietnam got him, it just waited a while to take him.
Older veteran here, and have seen some crazy shit.
Hats? Meh. Some folks talk about what they did. Others don’t. And some let their hats do the talking. Whatever - If they’ve earned it, I’m not going to tell 'em to shut up.
Quoted for truth! 
Before I wised up and became a Seabee, I was stationed on the USS Enterprise (CVN-65, not NCC-1701). A couple of years ago my mom found my old command ball cap (like this one) and brought it to our house.
I was going to throw in the box o’ crap in the basement, but my 5 year old son fell in love with it and wears it all the time. I’m glad he likes it, but I have no desire to wear it anymore.