WWII US Garrison Cap

After I posted WWI side caps last week, I decided to post this WWII era side cap to show the differences. The WWI era cap known as the “Overseas Cap” ceased to be worn by the US Army shortly after the war ended. In the 1930s it made a comeback as the “Garrison Cap.” The caps came in khaki as well as light and dark shades of olive drab, to match the uniform worn.

A major change is the piping around the side edges. In WWI, officers wore piping in the color of their service branch, and enlisted men went without piping. In WWII, enlisted men wore service branch colors, and officers wore black and gold piping (Generals wore all gold and warrant officers wore gold and silver). The color scheme for the branch piping matched the colors used on the hat cords of the old Smokey the Bear style campaign hats.

This particular garrison cap belonged to a relative of mine who served in both WWII and the Korean War, so this example might actually date a little after WWII. He was in the medical corps, as shown by the maroon and white piping on the cap. The cap is the darker winter wool variety and has no lining. The sweat band is cotton twill, sewn along the top and bottom edges. There is no tag or other marking.

In the last photo I’ve placed it beside one of the caps I posted last week for comparison. This other cap could be one of several styles of private purchase overseas caps of WWI, or it may be an early WWII private purchase. It’s a shade of olive drab matching the 1918 uniform, and it retains the rounded top and center split of some WWI caps, but that top and slit show up on some early WWII caps as well. Also during WWII, caps were issued without piping and the post tailor shop would sew on the appropriate color. With the rapid expansion of the army, and soldiers transferring between branches, unpiped caps were not unheard of.