The Veteran Cap That Got Noticed at the Post

Ray's old ball cap had gone soft and pale, the kind of faded that comes from four summers of sweat and one too many spins through the wash. He wore it anyway, every Thursday at nine, into the post hall on the north side of town. I make the coffee there. Ray is the veteran; I am the brother who tags along, sets up chairs, and has never served a day. Back in March I ordered him a replacement from e4Hats.com, the Veteran Military Large Patch Cap in the US Navy version, and I have watched what happened to it since.

Here is why I bought it. Walt Nowak died in mid January at 81, and a few days after the funeral I stopped at Marge's house and saw his flag still folded in its plastic sleeve on her kitchen table. That got me thinking about the things men keep and the things men put in a drawer. Ray's cap was a drawer item. It said nothing about the four years he spent as a machinist's mate from 1970 to 1974, and he does not talk about those years unless somebody asks him a direct question.

The cap came in the same order as four other things that first week of March. Ray opened the box at his kitchen table, turned the cap over twice, looked at the patch, and put it on. The patch is large and stitched, and the crown sits high on his head, which took him about a day to get used to. He is 74 and does not spend much time on how a thing looks. He cares whether it fits and whether it lasts.

The following Thursday he walked into the post wearing it. Dale looked up from his coffee and said something short and approving. Hank, who spent twenty years as an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force, asked where he got it, and Ray pointed at me, which is how I ended up explaining an internet hat order to three veterans at nine in the morning. Nobody made a fuss. That is the correct amount of fuss for that table.

The part I did not expect came two weeks later at the hardware store. A man in his forties stopped Ray in the fastener aisle, read the patch, and said thank you for your service. Ray said thank you back, short, and we went and found the screws I needed. He mentioned it once in the truck on the way home and has not mentioned it since.

He has worn it every Thursday since March, plus the hardware store and most mornings at the gas station. Eight months in, the patch has not lifted at a single corner.

I have handled the cap enough now to know what I am looking at. The e4Hats.com listing calls it a six panel baseball cap, 35 percent cotton and 65 percent polyester, high profile with a crown about 4 inches deep and a pre-curved bill 2 3/4 inches long. It weighs 4.8 ounces, light enough that Ray forgets he has it on indoors. The back is a plastic snap, one size fits up to XL, and the care instructions say hand wash only. That last part is worth reading twice before you buy.

The crown is tall. If a man is used to a low, soft cap that settles down over his ears, this one will feel like it is floating up there until he adjusts the snap and gets used to it. The plastic snap is not a fitted back, and it will not satisfy a man who wants a tailored fit. Hand wash only means it does not go in the machine with the rest of the laundry, which is a small chore nobody enjoys. Those are the three things I would want to know.

It is not a fitted cap and it is not waterproof. It does not name a ship, a rate, or a year. The patch says the branch and that is the whole of it. If you are shopping for a man who served on a particular ship and wants that on his hat, this is not that hat, and no amount of shopping on e4Hats.com will make it one. Different branches are sold as separate options and I have only handled the Navy one, so I cannot speak for the others.

Four men at that table, and I can only tell you what four men said. Dale, Marine Corps in the 1980s, said he would wear one if it were his branch. Hank said he owns hats he paid more for that fit worse. Ray has not taken it off since March and his old cap is hanging on a hook in the garage, which is the closest thing to a review he will ever give me.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you were across from me with a cup of coffee and asked whether to buy this for a veteran in your life, I would say this. Buy it if the man already wears a ball cap and would wear one with his branch on it. Buy it if he is the sort who says thank you and moves on, because that is all this hat asks of him. Do not buy it as a surprise for a man who has never worn a cap, and do not buy it hoping it starts a conversation he has never wanted to have. It is a hat. It keeps the sun off, it says one thing plainly, and it has held up to hand washing and eight months of Thursdays. What the rest of it means is up to the man wearing it, and Ray has decided it means something, which is enough for me.