Posted by Steve Hartsell on June 28, 2000 at 23:56:10:
In Reply to: JAKE'S HAT posted by Terry on June 27, 2000 at 23:55:41:
Let me begin by admitting that I have never been into hats. During four years in Army ROTC, five years active duty in the Army, and another five year in the Army Reserve, I never liked to wear hats. (However, I was quite prepared to wear--or sit on--my helmet if I had been honored to serve my country in combat.)
Both Kathy Fleming and The Captain have written more than enough to fully justify Jake Cutter's wearing his "50-mission crush" cap in TOTGM. I would only like to add the following:
1. When I shared Terry's comments, and those of Ms Fleming and The Captain's, with my wife, she shared with me that when she smells mothballs, she remembers seeing (and touching and smelling) her father's cap that he wore as an ECW officer on a B-26 in WWII.
2. For me, I must concede that TOTGM evokes images (and feelings and smells) of what must have been experienced (or could have experienced) by my own mother and father in their own lives before they so generously shared their own lives with me. For example, although my own father was too young to fly with the Flying Tigers in China, he did land on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. I can certainly cannot demand any more of him--do any of you?
In closing let me add the following:
Terry points out that Jake Cutter was a "rebel". I agree. In 1938 (and today) however, to be a "rebel" was (and is) to be willing to risk one's own life to save that of another human being, not just to avoid wearing some hat just because it is not "cool". Kathy Fleming and The Captain have made it clear that Jake Cutter must wear his "50-mission crush" cap in TOTGM to be historically accurate. More significantly, however, I submit that to even suggest that Jake must wear a different hat to be "cool" is to deny the very spirit of TOTGM.