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No more pith helmets for me!

They used to be part of the uniform of the day for the USN officers stationed on Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory.

Pith helmets with the officer's device from the combo cover attached, short sleeved khaki shirts, khaki shorts (the uniform shop made cut-offs out of the uniform trousers) and jungle boots.

So, my battle group pulls into the atoll one day in the early '90s. There's not a great deal of anything to do except lie on the beach, drink and buy pith helmets at the uniform shop. (In case you've never been there, there is no native population. The British moved them off.)

So I bought two as souvenirs, then went to the officers club. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, a lot of the other O's did it the other way around. They went to the officer's club first and pounded a few, went and bought multiple pith helmets, then came back to the club with their purchases stacked on their heads.

Which is a no-no. You never enter the officer's club covered. The perils of doing your pith helmet shopping after drinking. So somebody would ring the bell on them, and they'd have to buy the entire bar a drink.

With half the wardroom of the entire battle group doing this, everybody who shopped-first-drank-later is drinking for free.

Unfortunately everybody got really rowdy and started doing a lot of damage. The last thing I saw before deciding to get out before the cops showed up was the entire A-7 Corsair squadron attack the hot dog cart on the veranda outside. Half climbed on and the other half started pushing it around until it went through the railing and landed on the beach.

Then I was off to the sailing center, which had a nice outdoor bar.

And the next morning every single CO in the battle group, ship or squadron, got a personal tour of the O club to assess damage and divvy up reparations.

Somehow, I managed to lose my pith helmets.

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