Garrison Caps
On this page you can find information about US Army Garrison Caps. We show different types, colors and information on the various branches. We hope you find this helpful!
Garrison Cap History
Since World War One, US army soldiers have been wearing Garrison Caps, sometimes als referred to as an overseas cap or side cap. As with uniform jackets, many variations can be found and various branches had their own insignia and indicators. The use of garrison caps compared to visor caps for soldiers meant that the US could supply caps at a lower costs, it needed less space and less material was needed.
Navy and Marine Corps Caps
Navy and USMC garrison caps come in different types, for the USMC you generally you see khaki caps, often worn with a distinctive cap badge/pin like the EGA (Eagle Globe Anchor). Aside from the khaki caps you often see the forest green caps to go with the winter uniform. The USMC caps are very similar to the army caps, aside from the piping colors.
For both Navy and USMC there was no difference between officer's and enlisted men's caps in appearance and construction materials. This distinction came from the wear of (rank) insignia on the cap. For enlisted the insignia were mostly black, for warrant officers silver was used and for officers gold insignia.
Navy caps have a little more variation, aside from the khaki caps, often worn with a distinctive cap badge/pin like the navy shield/anchor, the navy uses forest green, a dark navy blue wool and white and grey. The caps were made in all fabrics navy uniforms were made of.
Navy caps often, but not always, have more of a wavy pattern flap on the side, compared to the more straight Army and USMC caps.
Army caps
Army caps come in a lot of different types. For enlisted men you often see khaki caps and brown wool caps, for officers you often see an additional chocolate brown or pink color. Since the army has a lot of branches, different color cord (piping) was used to distinct the one branch from the other.
The USMC and Navy had a distinctive branch pin (EGA or Navy shield/anchor), the army did not. With the army caps you more often see different kinds of insignia like the DUI pins.
Garrison Cap Piping Colors
As with many indicators on uniforms, Garrison caps have certain piping colors depending on the branch the soldier serves in. The pattern in which the piping was made doesn't have a real significance. The differences in patterns are usually related to the manufacturer of the caps/piping. You sometimes see a checkered pattern piping and sometimes straight lines. Below you can find a list of the variations in colors which are specific to a certain branch. We also have some photo's of caps to help you see the differences.
Enlisted Garrison Caps and Piping Colors
Adjutant General's Department
The color for this branch is Dark Blue with (Scarlet) Red.
This color looks very similar to the Tank Destroyer piping. The dark blue and black can look very similar. The clear difference is in the red color compared to the more orange in the tank destroyer piping.
Artillery (Coast and Field)
The color for this branch is (Scarlet) Red.
When faded by the sun this color can represent a bit pink like.
Engineers
The color for this branch is (Scarlet) Red with White.
When faded by the sun this color can represent a bit pink/orange like With white.
Finance Department
The color for this branch is Silver Gray/White with Golden Yellow.
The official color designation on these caps is silver gray with golden yellow, however the silver gray often represents as white or off white. Not really recognizable as a gray.
First Special Service Forces
The color for this branch is White with Red and Purple.
These caps are very hard to find since there where only a couple of Special forces during the war. The piping is unique due to the use of tree different colors, other branches only used a single color or a combination of two.
Quartermaster Corps
The color for this branch is Golden Yellow.
This color looks very similar to the General officers Piping, however, when placing them next to each other, the general officers piping is a bit more gold brown. The quartermaster piping can sometimes represent itself as a bit of an off white/khaki kind of golden yellow.
Tank Destroyers
The color for this branch is Golden Orange with Black.
This color is very similar to the Adjutant General's piping. The dark blue and black can look very similar. The clear difference is in the orange color compared to the more darker red in the adjutants piping.
Transportation Corps
The color for this branch is Red with Golden Yellow.
This color looks very similar to the Ordnance piping. The yellow and golden yellow can look very similar. The clear difference is the brightness of the color, however when faded this difference becomes almost invisible.
Officers Garrison Caps and Piping Colors
General Officer
The color for this branch is Gold.
This color looks very similar to the Quartermaster Corps Piping, however, when placing them next to each other, the general officers piping is a bit more gold brown.
Chaplain
The color for this branch is black.
Chaplains don't have enlisted men in service, they are always officers. Chaplains often wear a pin on their caps, for example a Christian Cross, to represent the type of chaplain they are.
Garrison Cap Insignia
As you can imagine, the same way insignia are worn on jackets and shirts, Garrison caps were also often equipped with insignia. These insignia could be worn on both sides of the cap, like with airborne patches, often the officers wore the patch on the left side and the enlisted men wore the patch on the right. But if was also possible to wear a rank pin on the left and a unit pin on the right or to even wear a rank pin on top of the airborne patch!
Below we have some examples of the insignia worn on garrison caps, here you can see different ranks, unit pins and woven insignia.
Garrison Cap Patches
The most common patches used on garrison caps are of course Airborne variations. We often see Airborne, Glider and combined cap patches on garrison caps. These insignia sometimes also represent a certain branch within the US army.
As with regular patches, stitching types and variations cap be seen with these cap insignia.
Garrison Cap Rank Insignia
Apart from Airborne patches, the most common item we see on garrison caps are rank pins for officers.
Apart from ranks like Lieutenant bars and oak leaf pins, you also see Warrant officer and flight officer pins.
With these pins there is no clear marked placement spot, you often see the soldiers would pick a general area in the front of the cap, most of the time the left side. Sometimes the pin is more centralized, sometimes it's more at the border.
Garrison Cap DUI Insignia
As with rank pins, also Distinctive Unit Insignia (DUI) pins were used on garrison caps. These pins could be divisional or regimental.
With these pins there is no clear marked placement spot, you often see the soldiers would pick a general area in the front of the cap, most of the time the left side. Sometimes the pin is more centralized, sometimes it's more at the border.
Garrison Cap Branch Insignia
In some cases you can find garrison caps with branch insignia. Apart from the standard Navy and USMC pins, the ones you encounter the most with these branch insignia are air force ones or medical pins representing the type of medical staff.
Collar Discs are also sometimes worn on Garrison caps and you can find all variations of collar discs, the collar disc on the garrison cap is something you often see during World War one, so naturally it also comes back in use during World War Two.
Garrison Cap Bullion Insignia
In rare cases, private purchases were made and caps were made with luxurious bullion made insignia. In some cases these are rank insignia, but in other cases soldiers had branch insignia made on their caps. On the right you can see different bullion variations like ranks, Air Force and Engineer insignia!
