Marines are decrying a new look President Obama has planned for their uniforms — namely, a unisex-style cap that they say looks more French than American, more “girly” than hard-charging.
“We don’t even have enough funding to buy bullets and the DoD [Department of Defense] is pushing to spend $8 million on covers that look like women’s hats,” one senior Marine said to The New York Post. “The Marines deserve better. It makes them look ridiculous.”
One estimate is that the new hats could cost about $8 million.
The hats are thinner and smaller, aimed at looking equally good on females as well as males. They’re called the “Dan Daly” hat, in honor of a Long Island sergeant who earned the Medal of Honor during World War I.
But the present hat has been a Marine Corps fixture since 1922, and it’s not just tradition that has some decrying the new hat. It’s the feminine feel of the proposed cap.
“The Dan Daly cap looks too French, and the last people we want to associate our Marines with would be the French military,” one critic wrote on the Marine Times website.
PHOTOS: See the Navy's biggest, baddest, destroyer
Marine Corps head Gen. James Amos makes the ultimate decision, and officials have until the end of this week to give their thumbs-up or thumbs-down to the proposed hat. But an informal survey of the Marine uniform advisory board already found: “The group members did not like the appearance of the Dan Daly cap on the male Marine,” The Post reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.