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I got my son an Iraq War veteran hat after he got discharged.
I don't think he has ever wore it. However, he does have First Cav lapel pin that he will occasionally wear on a suit coat. |
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Quoted: I need one of these on a hat. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/60078/coldwar_jpg-2855322.JPG View Quote Attached File |
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Because most of them are still relatively young & they don't want to look old?
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I see Iraq vet hats on occasion. Probably about the same amount as Desert Storm hats. Probably just a generational thing combined with how the public initially treated Vietnam vets. Once Vietnam vets were "cool" they started wearing the swag... DS and later vets were treated differently from the beginning, so less need to "represent" maybe. I don't have a DS hat, nor would I wear one if I did...
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How about movies?
They're still making VN movies (war lasted well under decade) and under a dozen about Mideast Desert Wars Parts ? - ? that smeared across several decades. New movie about Vietnam every year, sometimes a half dozen in one year back in the 80s. I was hoping to see what they could make of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars but tit seemed they got the shitting on military mostly out of their system and they didn't want to build non-jungle movie sets or something. |
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View Quote I remember that, we staged there for QRF often. The night that happened, a few soldiers and myself may have been imbibing on "Listerine" |
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My wife has a relative that constantly wears Irag war veteran hats (so I can attest that they do exist) interchangeably with desert storm hats because he says they the same thing. He gets 100% disability from PTSD, has 3 service dogs he dresses up in molle vests with veteran patches all over and even has custom doggie dress blues he puts them in for formal events so they'll be matchy matchy. He hangs out at VFW's retailing how he's "seen some shit" and his truck is covered in "I'm a veteran, please clap" stickers.
He was a truck driver in the reserves during desert storm/desert shield and never deployed or so much as left the states. |
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Quoted: How about movies? They're still making VN movies (war lasted well under decade) and under a dozen about Mideast Desert Wars Parts - that smeared across several decades. New movie about Vietnam every year, sometimes a half dozen in one year back in the 80s. I was hoping to see what they could make of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars but tit seemed they got the shitting on military mostly out of their system and they didn't want to build non-jungle movie sets or something. View Quote Restrepo Korengal Lone Survivor 12 Strong Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Rock The Casbah The Outpost War Machine The Covenant Armadillo The Hornets Nest Hell and Back Again The Hurt Locker American Sniper War Dogs Green Zone Hyena Road |
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Quoted: My wife has a relative that constantly wears Irag war veteran hats (so I can attest that they do exist) interchangeably with desert storm hats because he says they the same thing. He gets 100% disability from PTSD, has 3 service dogs he dresses up in molle vests with veteran patches all over and even has custom doggie dress blues he puts them in for formal events so they'll be matchy matchy. He hangs out at VFW's retailing how he's "seen some shit" and his truck is covered in "I'm a veteran, please clap" stickers. He was a truck driver in the reserves during desert storm/desert shield and never deployed or so much as left the states. View Quote And that’s the kinda guys that usually wear that stuff. That and old dudes. |
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Quoted: Generation Kill Restrepo Korengal Lone Survivor 12 Strong Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Rock The Casbah The Outpost War Machine The Covenant Armadillo The Hornets Nest Hell and Back Again The Hurt Locker American Sniper War Dogs Green Zone Hyena Road View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: How about movies? They're still making VN movies (war lasted well under decade) and under a dozen about Mideast Desert Wars Parts - that smeared across several decades. New movie about Vietnam every year, sometimes a half dozen in one year back in the 80s. I was hoping to see what they could make of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars but tit seemed they got the shitting on military mostly out of their system and they didn't want to build non-jungle movie sets or something. Restrepo Korengal Lone Survivor 12 Strong Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Rock The Casbah The Outpost War Machine The Covenant Armadillo The Hornets Nest Hell and Back Again The Hurt Locker American Sniper War Dogs Green Zone Hyena Road Only ones worth watching IMO, and I thought The Outpost did a generally poor job of reflecting that Tapper's excellent book covered four years worth of units. |
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I think a lot of guys are in the trying to forget stage that comes right before only remembering the good/fun times where putting an attention getter like a hat on starts. I try not to think about it most of the time after the clusterfuck of the withdrawal.
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The men who served at NIKE/Titan missle bases should have their own hats and other regalia.
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Quoted: Did you do Iraq? Most of the guys who went (in all branches) never saw anything more dangerous than the Puerto Rican E-4 chicks on MWR Salsa Night (regardless of their war stories) so it don't translate to hats. View Quote That sounds about right, probably more so in the beginning. Later on in the mid to late 2000s, they started pulling a lot more support soldiers to go on patrol. I recall seeing some woman from commo going out on patrol (gunning a humvee with the 50 no less) and she even had a fat dip in. They pulled HQ soldiers and people from the s-shops to supplement in all kinds of places. They ran guys in the infantry units pretty hard with very little off time. It was either going on patrol, a raid, tower guard, or whatever oddball mission came up. It probably got even worse for the surge a couple years later. I also assume you aren't counting the people who took a little bit of mortars or rockets on their FOBs. Hardly worth mentioning. That was my experience at least. I did a tour in an infantry unit back in 06. |
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I only have a SW Asia Campaign Medal, they didn’t give me a hat.
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If you think there are people who would buy them, you should sell them.
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Quoted: My wife has a relative that constantly wears Irag war veteran hats (so I can attest that they do exist) interchangeably with desert storm hats because he says they the same thing. He gets 100% disability from PTSD, has 3 service dogs he dresses up in molle vests with veteran patches all over and even has custom doggie dress blues he puts them in for formal events so they'll be matchy matchy. He hangs out at VFW's retailing how he's "seen some shit" and his truck is covered in "I'm a veteran, please clap" stickers. He was a truck driver in the reserves during desert storm/desert shield and never deployed or so much as left the states. View Quote Never deployed reservist with a 100% rating for PTSD? Damn. I’d love to hear that story. Reservists need a “line of duty” determination to service connected anything. He get butt raped in basic training or something? |
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I guess I assumed he was talking about '01+ and left those out. But yes if we're going back to DS/DS those should be on the list.
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Quoted: I guess I assumed he was talking about '01+ and left those out. But yes if we're going back to DS/DS those should be on the list. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Generation Kill Restrepo Korengal Lone Survivor 12 Strong Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Rock The Casbah The Outpost War Machine The Covenant Armadillo The Hornets Nest Hell and Back Again The Hurt Locker American Sniper War Dogs Green Zone Hyena Road Three Kings Jarhead Want to hear something crazy? Congress and the Veterans Affairs say the Gulf war started in 1990 and is not over yet. Some sailor on a ship off the coast of Bahrain today is a “gulf war veteran”. Desert shield, Desert Storm, Southern watch, OIF are different campaigns in the same “war”. |
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Quoted: Never deployed reservist with a 100% rating for PTSD? Damn. I’d love to hear that story. Reservists need a “line of duty” determination to service connected anything. He get butt raped in basic training or something? View Quote I admittedly only know what I posted, but unless he's making it up and the portion of the family we associate with are corroborating, that's all I got. I do know he gets some sort of disability check because he's not living the way does working at taco bell (not kidding) and "collects" service dogs. He's a complete piece of excrement (robbed the wife's grandfather blind right before and right after her grandfather died) so we don't associate with him directly anymore. |
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Quoted: Want to hear something crazy? Congress and the Veterans Affairs say the Gulf war started in 1990 and is not over yet. Some sailor on a ship off the coast of Bahrain today is a "gulf war veteran". Desert shield, Desert Storm, Southern watch, OIF are different campaigns in the same "war". View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Generation Kill Restrepo Korengal Lone Survivor 12 Strong Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Rock The Casbah The Outpost War Machine The Covenant Armadillo The Hornets Nest Hell and Back Again The Hurt Locker American Sniper War Dogs Green Zone Hyena Road Three Kings Jarhead Want to hear something crazy? Congress and the Veterans Affairs say the Gulf war started in 1990 and is not over yet. Some sailor on a ship off the coast of Bahrain today is a "gulf war veteran". Desert shield, Desert Storm, Southern watch, OIF are different campaigns in the same "war". |
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Quoted: That movie is such bullshit. When I met my wife, she read the book to see what my service was about. I had to explain that whiny bitches with momma issues did represent me or my views. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Three Kings Jarhead That movie is such bullshit. When I met my wife, she read the book to see what my service was about. I had to explain that whiny bitches with momma issues did represent me or my views. Yes, it sucked |
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I personally wouldnt wear one if someone gave it to me. I know where I went and what happened while I was there. I have no interest in drawing attention to it from strangers. I dont want to discuss it with people I don't know or have them blindly say they appreciate what I did. No clue if that's other people's opinion and has an impact on the hat industry, but it's mine. I thought a lot about the Army based tattoo I got and the first criteria on my list was for it to NOT be readily visible to random strangers. I didn't get it to advertise anything. I got it for myself and nothing more.
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I need to re-watch it but I didn't remember liking it that much. I think I was expecting more action though.
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Quoted: Wait until we're are old timers and I'm sure you'll start seeing them View Quote I think that’s a lot of it. Those of us from that time period are still young(ish). We are still looking at the present and future. As you get older, you tend to spend more time looking back at the past. In the future they’ll start cropping up. |
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Quoted: Lots of OIF guys are retired grandfathers now View Quote Yeah, but they're still not old. Here's my position on this, based on my life experience. If you are 65 or older and wear a hat that has some medals or a war are wtf ever, it's an automatic cool. If you are under 65 and your identity is worn on a trucker cap, you have problems I can't solve. |
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Can I get a hat if I banged a Flight Nurse Contractor who flew evac cases from Doha to Wiesbaden on a Global Express?
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Quoted: Can I get a hat if I banged a Flight Nurse Contractor who flew evac cases from Doha to Wiesbaden on a Global Express? View Quote Damned right! You need a hat for that. If I could have banged that hot Spanish girl at the airbase in Torrejon on my way to Saudi, I would have a billboard in town about it. She was a blonde, green eyed, Sofia Vergara. |
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Because a lot of them that weren’t killed or maimed in Iraq have committed suicide in the years since returning home. The ones that haven’t probably don’t want to talk about it.
3/1 Marines alone have lost nearly 40 veterans of Operation Phantom Fury to suicide. Give it another 30 years and I’m sure there will be old dudes all over the place wearing GWOT veteran hats. And the majority of them will be veterans who never deployed, or never deployed into actual combat. |
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Quoted: The Army has no more entrenched and more worthless a pogue class than senior food service NCOs. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Like there is “Veteran of the Vietnam War” hats. Up here there is a lot of them. The Vietnam Nam ones. I have not seen one Iraq war veteran hat. Is that because only Marines would be able to wear them? Did you do Iraq? Most of the guys who went (in all branches) never saw anything more dangerous than the Puerto Rican E-4 chicks on MWR Salsa Night (regardless of their war stories) so it don't translate to hats. What pogue bases had MWR? LSA Anaconda and Baghdad Airport? I was mostly at Falcon and Blue Diamond. No MWR. We got shelled all the dam time. In fact the ASP at Falcon got blown up. Jesus….don’t ask what camp it was, but it was in the Camp Victory complex, and we had pulled in just in time, thinking we’d be able to hit a real chow hall. We did, and from little we saw, it was like everything we had been told…a buffet, sandwich bar, grill, salad bar, about 5 different ice cream flavors. There was about 12 of us scoping out where we could all sit together when an e7 asked us to leave. He advised us that much like a dress code, we were too dirty and sweaty to be in the dfac, making people uncomfortable. We sat in the parking lot, looking to see what mre’s we had left that weren’t all rat fucked, and not sure who it was, but someone brought us out to-go plates of burgers and fries. Your job is to feed us. Here we are Pogue Mess Sergeant. They tried this shit on us we we rolled into the chow hall from patrol, dirty and late (right before closing) and brought our 3x .50 receivers inside the chow hall with us so we could all eat together as there was no time to eat in shifts. We said we weren’t leaving and just ignored them and kept eating. Nothing happened. We were having a war and then garrison broke out. They pulled that bullshit at COB Speicher when I was there. Turned my guys away because they were dirty from working on helicopters. ?? The Army has no more entrenched and more worthless a pogue class than senior food service NCOs. I don’t recall the mess people being a pain. Always some CSM from a turd unit on a base or something trying to be a pain in the ass. |
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Quoted: And that’s the kinda guys that usually wear that stuff. That and old dudes. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: My wife has a relative that constantly wears Irag war veteran hats (so I can attest that they do exist) interchangeably with desert storm hats because he says they the same thing. He gets 100% disability from PTSD, has 3 service dogs he dresses up in molle vests with veteran patches all over and even has custom doggie dress blues he puts them in for formal events so they'll be matchy matchy. He hangs out at VFW's retailing how he's "seen some shit" and his truck is covered in "I'm a veteran, please clap" stickers. He was a truck driver in the reserves during desert storm/desert shield and never deployed or so much as left the states. And that’s the kinda guys that usually wear that stuff. That and old dudes. I see some legit vets wearing them. But I would have to say the preponderance is those with a term or two of service, and it was a big thing in their life. Maybe the biggest thing of their life. They guys with like three or more campaign stars on each of their OIF and OEF ribbons that were in Ranger Bn or green beret before becoming an operator, or that did a couple of trips as a SEAL before doing the GI Bill and becoming an aviator or getting their Econ degree from Dartmouth before becoming a lawyer or a solid MBA, etc. not so much. |
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Quoted: Never deployed reservist with a 100% rating for PTSD? Damn. I’d love to hear that story. Reservists need a “line of duty” determination to service connected anything. He get butt raped in basic training or something? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: My wife has a relative that constantly wears Irag war veteran hats (so I can attest that they do exist) interchangeably with desert storm hats because he says they the same thing. He gets 100% disability from PTSD, has 3 service dogs he dresses up in molle vests with veteran patches all over and even has custom doggie dress blues he puts them in for formal events so they'll be matchy matchy. He hangs out at VFW's retailing how he's "seen some shit" and his truck is covered in "I'm a veteran, please clap" stickers. He was a truck driver in the reserves during desert storm/desert shield and never deployed or so much as left the states. Never deployed reservist with a 100% rating for PTSD? Damn. I’d love to hear that story. Reservists need a “line of duty” determination to service connected anything. He get butt raped in basic training or something? I know you are joking but an AGR guy got 100% MST, who never deployed, because his buddy was killed on a deployment. And as for MST, it is a presumed event when claimed, with about a 70% chance of getting 100% PTSD rating. |
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Quoted: The Army of Occupation medal was only awarded to troops in Germany outside Berlin (with "Germany" clasp) from 9 May 1945 to 5 May 1955 (Berlin was until 2 Oct 1990). Also Austria (9 May 1945 to 27 July 1955) & Italy (9 May 1945 to 15 September 1947) - with the "Germany" clasp. With the "Japan" clasp it was issued to troops in Japan (3 September 1945 to 27 April 1952) or Korea (3 September 1945 to 29 June 1949). Its a WW2 era medal not a Cold War medal (except for Berlin since West Berlin was technically occupied). View Quote For that plate, it's nein necessary. From the application form: Proof that the applicant was awarded the Army of Occupation Medal, current or former member of the United States military who was permanently assigned to occupation forces in specific overseas locations during the Cold War between May 9, 1945, and October 2, 1990 |
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Quoted: Generation Kill Restrepo Korengal Lone Survivor 12 Strong Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Rock The Casbah The Outpost War Machine The Covenant Armadillo The Hornets Nest Hell and Back Again The Hurt Locker American Sniper War Dogs Green Zone Hyena Road View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: How about movies? They're still making VN movies (war lasted well under decade) and under a dozen about Mideast Desert Wars Parts - that smeared across several decades. New movie about Vietnam every year, sometimes a half dozen in one year back in the 80s. I was hoping to see what they could make of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars but tit seemed they got the shitting on military mostly out of their system and they didn't want to build non-jungle movie sets or something. Restrepo Korengal Lone Survivor 12 Strong Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Rock The Casbah The Outpost War Machine The Covenant Armadillo The Hornets Nest Hell and Back Again The Hurt Locker American Sniper War Dogs Green Zone Hyena Road Correction - Good war movies with lots of action like the Vietnam movies with explosions and interesting stuff, rather than drama with spots of action and ones that don't suck like Three Kings |
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Just based off hats and shirts, you can meet a lot of Navy SEALs at the gun show.
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The only people that wear that shit are dudes that never deployed or never left the wire. Or the guys that were serving food at 30th AG instead of graduating.
One of our guys that didn’t make through basic got caught wearing a gwot veteran hat. Not all but a lot |
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Quoted: Like there is “Veteran of the Vietnam War” hats. Up here there is a lot of them. The Vietnam Nam ones. I have not seen one Iraq war veteran hat. Is that because only Marines would be able to wear them? View Quote I've seen quite a few of them and its always guys that didn't do shit and Marines that are looking for attention. |
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Almost never wore my OEF hat and then it got stolen. Think I wore it twice
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Quoted: My wife has a relative that constantly wears Irag war veteran hats (so I can attest that they do exist) interchangeably with desert storm hats because he says they the same thing. He gets 100% disability from PTSD, has 3 service dogs he dresses up in molle vests with veteran patches all over and even has custom doggie dress blues he puts them in for formal events so they'll be matchy matchy. He hangs out at VFW's retailing how he's "seen some shit" and his truck is covered in "I'm a veteran, please clap" stickers. He was a truck driver in the reserves during desert storm/desert shield and never deployed or so much as left the states. View Quote |
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Quoted: That era stuff is some of the most disingenuous BS out there. Either you're a veteran of the Vietnam War or not. Nothing wrong with either option, just don't try to tag along on someone else's work. View Quote Hey now, what do you have against Indians chanting and banging on drums while complaining to liberal reporters about smiling high schoolers in front of you |
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to soon I would say.
I dont need a hat to say where I have been. WW2 guys and Nam guys are the one that deserve to be recognized and thanked. Just my 2 cents |
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My kids bought me an OIF Hat an a purple heart hat, I've never worn either. No grunt style shirts etc, my trucks completely sterile, no stickers etc. If people ask what I do, I just say I retired from the post office.
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