Soviet Air Force Hat (Everyday use)

[Zavesda]

This is a Soviet Air Force (Officer/Warrant Officer/Extended Serviceman Everyday) Visor Hat I picked up shorty after my Navy Visor Hat.

It's got little to no wear on the lining on the inside aside from the sweat stain where the marker's label would be (The marker's label had been removed or something because the stitches are somewhat visible in a diamond formation); the leather sweatband is worn, but looks like it was taken care of regularly.

The outside of the hat in my opinion was taken care of as good as it was on the inside. The band and piping is nice and clean. The crown, as far as I can tell, is in nice condition (I'm assuming they thought it would look good no matter how much wear it had due to the rugged 'Everyday Use' color).

I'm unaware of what type of cockade these types of hats posses; I've seen some cases where Boris Alexandrov (Second leader of the Alexandrov Ensemble/ Red Army Choir behind his father) donned said cockade on an Infantry Officer's hat as well as his subordinates. I've also seen this type of cockade on some Soviet berets (Most typically on VDV beret's and sometimes on female dress uniform beret's). If anyone could explain what type of cockade this is, it'd be much appreciated.

At the top of the crown, the hat posses the Air Force wings cockade with a blank star at the center of where the wings meet at the top. I'm told Air Force soldiers only earned these wings when they become pilot's and actually flew an aircraft of any type. I'm not sure about this, but I was also told that VDV officer's wore these hats sometimes and earned their wings when they performed one jump; not too sure if that's fact or not, but any shed light on that would be appreciated.

The last piece I'd like to shortly point out is the use of the chin strap (Not too sure of the material to form said chin strap, but I've seen chin straps made of leather, some type of fiber material, which I think this one is made of.. Or simply a wire chin strap), much rather than the officer's brass cord; although I know after a certain point officer's were authorized to wear brass cords with these hats rather than the chin strap.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the share !