Khaki Kepi

[legionnaire]

Bonsoir:

A Khaki Kepi with a Black Visor was issued by the Legion at some point.

Does anybody know what years they were issued and for what purpose?

Merci,

Legionnaire

[rockape867]

Can't tell you in which years they were issued, but my ex-Legion friends say they were worn under a white cover only, so were worn in the period before the white plasticized kepi became general issue.
Obviously not worn by NCO/Officer grades

[Kenneth]

A late response to the original question, the 'kaki clair' kepis seem to have been a Model 1961, so that is a partial dating. However, it also seems that the Legionnaires Sahariens actually wore kepi covers in that shade (actually rather lighter), as opposed to white--but only in the field, but they also wore the white cover, too, and in all orders of dress. There is a photo on the cover of Kepi blanc, March 1959, of a soldier wearing his kepi with a pale khaki cover, more of an off-white than khaki, and also a djellaba. The Legionnaires Sahariens had many such peculiarities of dress.

Something to keep in mind is that when we speak of the past, time gets compressed and we talk about five years as being no time at all. But when you're in the service, believe me, time passes rather more slowly. Meanwhile, uniform items come and go with some frequency, if not regularly. Yet items linger on in regulations long after they become scarce and cease to be issued or unfashionable. Some changes in uniforms, such as how wide or narrow pants legs are, are very difficult to pinpoint in documentation, generally being little more than a two-line notice in a bulletin. Some patterns of uniform items when they are replaced disappear, never to be seen by the later generations soldiers. In my case, for instance, the so-called Ridgeway cap (U.S.), the closest thing we ever had to a kepi since before 1900, was replaced by that awful baseball cap in 1962. I enlisted in 1965 and never saw one. But there would have been many soldiers who came and went who never wore anything else.

[Kenneth]

I ran across the reference to the khaki kepi the other day and it reminded me of this thread. I'm surprised that I was the one who made the last comment. Anyway, I happened to notice how the fashion for wearing headwear, at least other than helmets, has changed over the years. And curiously, the same fashion seems to happen everywhere. In the WWII period and earlier, caps were invariably worn in a larger size, further back on the head and often tilted to one side. One sees it in official photos, even. Today, the trend seems to be to wear smaller sizes practically perched on top of the head. And another curious thing is how headwear without a brim, like berets, glengarries and "side hats" are worn straight but well forward on the head, almost touching the eyebrows. We laugh at the old but religiously follow the new.

[craigtx]

I've noticed that as well...

[lew]

Dec 7, 2019 16:19:28 GMT -5 Kenneth said:

I ran across the reference to the khaki kepi the other day and it reminded me of this thread. I'm surprised that I was the one who made the last comment. Anyway, I happened to notice how the fashion for wearing headwear, at least other than helmets, has changed over the years. And curiously, the same fashion seems to happen everywhere. In the WWII period and earlier, caps were invariably worn in a larger size, further back on the head and often tilted to one side. One sees it in official photos, even. Today, the trend seems to be to wear smaller sizes practically perched on top of the head. And another curious thing is how headwear without a brim, like berets, glengarries and "side hats" are worn straight but well forward on the head, almost touching the eyebrows. We laugh at the old but religiously follow the new.

I think late in the Indochina War and throughout the Algerian War was the sweet spot for berets looking good: not too big like a chef's bonnet, and not the ridiculously small versions that came after. I think the current US manner of wearing berets basically plastered to the side of the head looks downright idiotic, and seeing some Israelis wear them comes close to popping a blood vessel.

[Kenneth]

My son served in the army ten years ago and did not like the beret, at least not as worn. Almost everyone wears them all around the world and the curious thing is, they all manage to wear them just a little bit differently. And the French mountain troops still wear them the same way they wore them a hundred years ago and very individualistically, too.

[lew]

I'm too practical for sentimentality and tradition. Give me a helmet, patrol cap, or a boonie.

[Kenneth]

Anything but a baseball cap. I wasn't a Marine but I rather liked their "cover."

The main idea behind distinctive headgear is not that it says you're 'elite' (one can never call one's self elite), but rather that you're you and nobody else. Rather like having red hair.