This white hat cover is for wear with the partially discontinued female combination cap that was worn by Officers, Chief Petty Officers, Junior Noncommissioned Officers, and Junior Enlisted women in the Navy. It is a removable cover, allowing you to switch between a khaki and white cover without the need to own two hat frames, and comes in rain-resistant vinyl or Certified Navy Twill.
Commonly referred to as a “bucket cover,” the female combination cap was a fixture in the United State Navy for decades, with its stylish, upswept side brim giving women Officers and Enlisted personnel an appearance distinct from their male counterparts. The difference between the frameless “Dixie Cup” cloth caps worn by male Sailors in the E1 – E6 rates and the Combination Caps worn by females in the same rates was particularly striking, especially as more and more women began to stand alongside men in the Navy’s active-duty rosters.
The upshot is that on 15 October 2015, the Navy took steps to create more universal appearance among Officers and Sailors by completely eliminating the iconic headgear. For females in the E1 – E6 rates, the classic bucket cover was replaced by the Dixie Cups (production was modified to include a more extensive list of hat sizes). For Officers and CPOs, the female combo cover was eliminated and women were given the option of either wearing the male combination cover or the newly developed Alternate Combination Cover, or ACC.
While the switch has already taken place for enlisted females, women serving as Officers and CPOs were given a respite from having to purchase the ACC or male combo cover when the National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama in December, 2016 with an amendment pushing the mandatory wear date of those items forward to October 2018. But only the khaki bucket cover was banished to the dustbin of history on that date, with the wear-out date of white bucket covers being extended to 31 December 2019.