posted 02-24-2015 05:47 AM               

During each Apollo recovery operation, baseball-style caps were made available for Navy, NASA, and other personnel on board the aircraft carrier.

This cS thread contains many interesting details about these hats, including a photo (which cS member Kosmo kindly found) of a crewman on board USS Hornet wearing one on deck the day before Apollo 11's splashdown.

You'll also read that they are relatively rare, with (for example) 1,000 Apollo 12 caps being purchased before the mission by Hornet's Supply Department. Also, while you will see photos of most Apollo astronauts wearing similar hats with gold braid on the brim, you won't see many photos of the braid-less hats being worn by Navy personnel because they weren't part of the official uniform.

I have available hats in excellent condition (probably never worn) from the following Apollo missions: 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, and 15. They were originally received by a NASA communications technician who was on board for all of those recovery operations.

A few of the astronauts have sold their hats for thousands of dollars. Because not a single one of these Navy/NASA hats have ever sold in any of the space auctions, I'm just going to have to price them at what I think is reasonable for such rare, interesting, contemporary mementos from these historic missions. Please let me know if you are interested. If there is a particular Apollo mission or two on which your collection is concentrated upon, this is a great opportunity.

Most were manufactured by Harvard Sports Headwear and are 100% wool.

Apollo 9 ($125):

Here is an example of the stamp found in the hats:

Apollo 10 ($125):

Apollo 12 (SOLD $125; brighter blue than all of the rest, which are so dark blue as to be almost black):

posted 02-24-2015 05:48 AM               

The ones for Apollo 14 and Apollo 15 had a different manufacturer, and are a wool/nylon blend.

Apollo 14 ($125):