Original Item: Only One Available. When one thinks of the Vietnam war, many things will come to mind, one of which may be the Boonie Tropical Hat. This style of hat was introduced to the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War, when U.S. Army Green Berets began wearing them in the field, along with Australian and Army of the Republic of Vietnam units. It was similar to the earlier 1941 "Daisy Mae" cap, but much more practical.

These boonie hats were locally procured, and the camouflage cloth was usually salvaged from other uniform items, parachutes, or fabricated by a tailor. The name is derived from "boonie", the abbreviated form of boondocks (itself originally American military slang derived from Tagalog bundok, "mountain", during the Philippine-American War). The hat was similar to the hat worn with the pattern 1941 HBT fatigue uniform.

U.S. involvement lasted nearly 20 years, and large-scale direct involvement lasted at least 10, so local Vietnamese companies began to produce many items used in the conflict, including this very nice example of an "In Country" made Boonie hat, which has very nice personal embroidery done to it.

The top of the cap has the patch for the 20th Engineer Brigade, which provided all non-divisional engineer support in Military Regions III and IV during eleven campaigns. Units cleared more than one-half million acres (2,000 km2) of jungle, paved 500 kilometers of highway, and constructed bridges totaling more than six miles (10 km) in length. As American forces were withdrawing from Vietnam, the brigade was inactivated 20 September 1971.

Left side embroidery:

MINNESOTA

Right side embroidery:

KRAN STOVER

There is no maker’s tag but there is a washing instructions tag still attached. The maker is unknown and the rough date and size estimate would be 1969 and 56cm(7-7 1/8) due to the nomenclature tag being missing. All stitching on the boonie is intact, there are no rips or tears in the fabric, all webbing is present around the crown and not damaged with the original chinstrap still attached to the boonie.

This would be the perfect addition to any Vietnam War enthusiast and historian!