The beautiful caps with Spanish flags of the American destroyer USS Arleigh Burke

@DefAviation ES 1·10·2024 · 20:29 0

In the US Navy it is becoming a tradition to wear Spanish flags on their caps during their deployments in Spain.

The Spanish insignia worn by the crew of the American destroyer USS Bulkeley
The colorful Spanish detail of the caps of the destroyer USS Carney of the US Navy

In 2019 we already saw here the caps of the USS Carney destroyer, of the Arleigh Burke class, with Spanish flags and the silhouette of a bull, during its deployment in the Rota Naval Base, as part of the anti-missile shield established there by our allies. Likewise, last year I showed here the caps of the destroyer USS Bulkeley, also of the Arleigh Burke class, during its deployment to that Spanish base. In this case they were patches that combined the flags of the USA and Spain.

Taking a look at the DVIDShub.net multimedia portal of the US Armed Forces I found some photos taken yesterday in Rota aboard the destroyer USS Arleigh Burke, the first of its class. The crew of this ship are wearing caps with a park like that of the USS Bulkeley on the left side, that is, combining the flags of the United States and Spain.

The caps are coyote brown, a color made fashionable by the US Marines with the introduction of their MARPAT camouflage in 2005, since that color is used in accessories (backpacks, vests and various cartridge belts), since it combines well with both the desert version and the forest version of that pixelated camouflage.

The US Navy introduced baseball caps of this color a few years ago, coinciding with the retirement of the NWU Type I blue camouflage uniforms in 2019 and the standardization of AOR2 woodland camouflage in its crew uniforms. These brown caps are also worn with the traditional blue overalls worn by American sailors on their ships.

From what I've seen on that destroyer's Facebook page, the Crew members of the USS Arleigh Burke began wearing the Spanish flag on their caps three years ago. Before that, the left side of the cap bore a number 51 with the US flag, alluding to the ship's number: DDG-51.

This Spanish flag is worn on the caps of all crew members, including officers and non-commissioned officers. In this photo we can see it, on the right, in an officer's cap.

Some Spanish sailors have had the opportunity to wear these caps. Here we see a member of the crew of the frigate "Santa María" of the Spanish Navy (on the left) with that cap, along with a chief electrician of the USS Arleigh Burke, during a joint exercise between both ships in June 2022.

In addition to the brown version, on the USS Arleigh Burke they also wear the Spanish flag on other versions of their caps. Here we see a female crew member on the bridge wearing a light blue cap, on the right. The crews of US Navy ships usually wear caps of different colors depending on the task assigned to each crew member.

Here we see another version of the cap, in this case with the complete Flag of Spain, with the National Coat of Arms, on a black cap. This is one of the caps of the Flying Squad, as the group of sailors in charge of damage control is known in the US Navy. They are in charge of putting out any fire that occurs on board.

Here we see another cap from the Flying Squad of the USS Arleigh Burke, also with the Spanish Flag.

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Photos: DVIDShub.net / USS Arleigh Burke.