To modify a WWI-era service coat for CCC use, the seamstresses at the Philadelphia Depot made several alterations. The iconic choker collar was cut away, replaced by a shawl collar derived from contemporary civilian Mackinaw cloth work coats. Shoulder tabs and waist belt loops were also cut away. Brass military buttons if present were replaced by brown bakelite or plastic. Finally, the upper two patch breast pockets were usually cut off.

The result was a garment which was neither fish nor fowl--clearly military with its tailored natural waist, thigh-length cut and combined yoke and center back panel, but stripped of all Army ornamentation. The lack of upper pockets and the small proportions of the shawl collar in comparison to the large lower pockets and flared skirt give it a curiously unbalanced look.

To me, no garment speaks more eloquently both to the hybrid military and civilian character of the CCC and to the achievements of the emergency mobilization than this one.

Original examples are exceedingly scarce on the secondary market. Understandably, given its wretched appearance, it has never been reproduced. 

As enrollment in the CCC swelled to 500,000 in 1935, demand for coats appears to have exhausted the supply of WWI tunics. In response, the Quartermaster Corps turned to private manufacturers for new coats in a tunic style. 

At left is an example of one such a coat which appeared in a posting in the US Militaria form. It includes a pristine QMC tag revealing it to have been made by the noted manufacturer Sigmund Eisner under an ECW contract dated June 17, 1935 to a specification issued on December 7, 1934.

At a casual glance, these 1934 OD wool tunics appears similar to the cut-down WWI service coats which preceded them. However, close examination reveals several differences. The 1934 coat is cut to a looser fit and lacks the tapered waist of a true service coat -- and was probably a more practical work jacket as a result. The pockets are now hanging rather than patch, with simple square flaps without a button. The coat has a falling collar with a notched lapel, an interesting departure from the QMC's apparent conviction that shawl collars made a more "civilian" impression. Overall, the impression is of a hybrid between a service tunic and a wool version of a civilian chore coat.

That the QMC was still issuing contracts for such a hybrid coat even as it was developing specifications for the improved CCC-specific wool lumber jackets discussed below speaks to a continuing sense of emergency in outfitting the Corps as late as mid-1935. This tunic and the "M1926-style" OD Mackinaw discussed below, the specification for which was adopted on the same date of June 17, 1935, may have been a short-term "bridge" procurement, intended to plug a gap between declining stocks of Great War surplus garments and the improved, CCC-specific outerwear which was not quite ready to go into production.

To provide additional warmth under the recycled tunic jackets, the QMC turned to a cache of WWI-era wool jerkins or vests.

By the time the US entered the Great War in 1917 our British and French allies had already fielded a variety of jerkins: simple sleeveless vests intended to warm and protect the core. Troops on the front lines preferred to wear the jerkin rather than a wool overcoat as the vest-style garment was far less constraining. 

French and English jerkins were made of durable leather outers somewhat like a modern flight jacket, and were lined on the inside with thick woolen blanket felt. 

In addition to purchasing French- and British-made jerkins, the Quartermaster Corps developed its own US-made versions in russet leather. However, as the expert WWI textile historian "World War Nerd" of the US Militaria forum writes:

"As the supply of leather began to dwindle in 1918, the Quartermaster Corps was forced to substitute other materials, such as cotton and wool for leather, whose availability was limited due to the urgent demand for more hobnailed shoes. Some of the emergency measures included making rifle slings from cotton webbing and fabricating jerkins entirely from wool."

"World War Nerd" is uncertain whether these late-1918 emergency wool jerkins were ever issued to American troops in France. 

"Aside from having seen numerous physical examples of this particular garment," he writes, "I have been unable to find any mention of it in either wartime or post war Quartermaster or government publications... . The only conclusion I can come to, is that like so many other articles of late war equipment and clothing made for the AEF late in 1918, the wool jerkin was either never issued or it was only issued in very limited quantities."

After languishing in Quartermaster Depots for 15 years, the WWI wool jerkins appear to have been issued wholesale to the CCC in 1933. Several period CCC photographs show boys wearing jerkins with fabric tape on the edges of the panels identical to the garment at left. 

That said, other photographs of the CCC at work show jerkins lacking the fine finish work of the World War I surplus garments. In the absence of any written evidence, I hypothesize that these rougher jerkins may be new garments produced specifically for the CCC in 1933 and 1934. Finally, some images seem to show wool jerkins with a more tailored waist, or with lower front patch pockets. It is possible that these more tailored jerkins could be WWI tunics cut down into vests by QMC seamstresses. 

For a heavy outer layer, the QMC provided the first four cohorts of CCC enrollees with WWI surplus overcoats of made from heavy 20 or 22 oz. Melton wool cloth.

Though details differed among models, all these coats had a double breast with a swallow cut and a V-shaped pattern of buttons, and a standing collar without notches in the lapels. Enlisted men's versions of these coats had brown plain buttons; officers' coats had embossed brass buttons. 

World War I production saw several simplifications to the basic design. The M1917 update included modifications to reduce the amount of wool required to produce the garment, including a simplified breast and plain rather than turned-back cuffs, albeit now with ornamental straps. The V-pattern of the buttons was retained. The final M1918 version reflected still further economies: a shorter above-the-knee cut, and loss of the ornamental cuff straps.

During 1933 and 1934 World War I-era overcoats were issued promiscuously to the CCC. Where possible, the QMC removed the brass buttons from officer's models and substituted bakelite or other synthetic buttons. However, numerous photographs show coats with brass as well as plastic buttons in the hands of CCC boys.

Like the jerkins, overcoats seem to have been taken back into inventory by individual camp supply officers during the summer to be reissued during the following winter. The names of two different enrollees inked into the lining of the coat at left testify to this practice.

Despite its ubiquity the heavy wool overcoat with its long skirt was never a good garment for the kind of active field work the CCC boys were expected to perform. After 1935 it was superseded by the CCC-specific lumber jackets and Mackinaw coats discussed below.

Images of CCC boys in the mobilization years commonly show enrollees wearing a variety of lightweight zippered wool windbreakers. These jackets closely resemble contemporary civilian baseball and field sports jackets. 

The CCC windbreaker jackets are form-fitting, waist-length coats of what appears to be light or medium-weight wool. However, they differ wildly in details such as collar shape, pocket placement, presence or absence of cuff straps or ornamentation, and presence or absence of separately-sewn waistbands. Most are closed with a front zipper--this at a time when zippers were unknown in military clothing design. However, button-closed versions are seen as well.

Some of these ubiquitous "baseball-style" jackets may have been the private property of their wearers. But a remarkable series of high-resolution portraits of the men of CCC Company 1995 at Heyburn State Park near Plummer, Idaho, in 1934 show multiple enrollees wearing identical dark-colored zippered jackets; these must have been some type of uniform issue. Written evidence confirms what we see in the photographs: the Table of Allowance in the 1935 edition of the War Department Regulations for the Civilian Conservation Corps calls for each enrollee to be issued a "windbreaker" (not otherwise described) in addition to a modified WW1 OD tunic and a modified WW1 OD overcoat.

Cryptic hints in written accounts may shed further light on these mystery jackets. Writing in 1934, Maj. John A. Porter of the QMC noted that 

"The problem of supplying winter clothing to the camps during the second period presented another problem to the Quartermaster Corps, as it meant going into the market for large quantities of special types of winter clothing and equipment suitable for the welfare and comfort of the members of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the winter months. To provide these men with winter clothing has necessitated the purchase of the following articles:

• 300,000 winter caps

• 300,000 lumber jackets or windbreakers

• 300,000 felt jerkins

• 300,000 pairs arctic overshoes

• 300,000 comforters

• 600,000 mattress covers

• 300,000 mattresses

• 1,200,000 sheets

at an approximate total cost of $6,720,000, or $22.40 per man. This purchase has contributed much toward the revival of the clothing industry of the country and has indirectly given employment to thousands of textile workers at a time when it was severely needed."

It seems highly probable that these baseball-style jackets are indeed Maj. Porter's "windbreakers." 

As for the many variations among this class of CCC jackets, consider Quartermaster Corps historian Erna Risch's observation that even as modification of the World War 1 surplus clothing was underway at the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot, regional quartermasters were given great latitude to procure locally any type of garment which Philadelphia could not yet supply:

"The Quartermaster General decentralized the purchase of all classes of supplies to [the other regional] depots, directing depot quartermasters to circulate information as widely as possible among prospective bidders, including those at facilities listed in the procurement plans. Once the Civilian Conservation Corps completed initial mobilization, the Philadelphia Depot purchased all clothing and equipage to avoid competition among the depots, but it continued to make contracts in all parts of the country."

The hypothesis that these dark zippered windbreakers are civilian baseball-style jackets purchased by the regional QM Depots for the CCC, probably without benefit of any single specification, fits nicely with the available photographic and written evidence. For now, however, it remains just that -- a hypothesis.

For a three-season field jacket to replace cut-down WWI tunics and expedient "windbreakers" the Army Quartermaster Corps turned to its pioneering flight jacket design, the A-1 pilot's jacket of the 1920s, and its many civilian "cossack" derivatives.

Army clothing design between the wars was largely stagnant. As Erna Risch points out,

"In the years immediately following World War I surplus property was ... a determining factor. When World War I ended, the existence of great stocks of nearly all the items of clothing and equipment which were then standard hindered the development of new items. It was approved War Department policy to issue such stocks until they were exhausted."

That said, despite the overhang of World War I deadstock the Quartermaster Corps did create a few notably innovative clothing designs between the wars. Many of these were driven by the requirements of the burgeoning Army Air Corps. Pilots of the open-cockpit biplanes of the 1920s required a windproof shell to protect them from the harsh cold experienced at flying airspeeds and altitudes. They also needed a jacket that allowed them to bend easily at the torso to reach controls throughout the cockpit and also to scan the sky behind them for enemy aircraft.

The Quartermaster Corps' solution was the A-1 leather flight jacket, shown at top left. First produced in 1927 and replaced by a successor design in 1931, the A-1 was the ur-flight jacket, the progenitor to which all subsequent flight and bomber jackets trace their lineage. 

Details vary widely on production examples. However, common features include a high cut waist to facilitate torso motion and a woolen knit waistband and cuffs to insulate the wearer from cold winds. Goatskin, sheepskin, and horsehide were all used at different times and by different contractors to fabricate the shell. The A-1 had two flapped patch pockets near the waist, though specifics of size and stitching varied wildly among contractors. The original design also had a knit "choker" collar closed by two buttons. 

Aviators of the day were glamorous public figures whose "look" carried considerable cachet, so the A-1 style was swiftly adapted for sale to the civilian market under the moniker "cossack jacket." The earliest such jackets were made of leather and were close cousins of the military progenitor, albeit usually with leather rather than knit waistbands and cuffs, and a falling or shawl rather than a standing collar.  As the style spread, other variations were made in every conceivable fabric, including wool and cotton.  

When the Quartermaster Corps needed a purpose-built CCC work jacket these "cossack" jackets provided a ready template. Though I have not yet located an example with a legible QM tag, the tables of allowance in the 1937 War Department Regulations for the Civilian Conservation Corps suggest the actual official name of this garment was Jacket, Lumber.

The lumber jacket tentative specification called for an A-1-style jacket, but with unlined olive drab wool substituted for expensive leather in the shell panels. Windproof knit cuffs followed the same style as the ancestral military A-1, but the choker collar was replaced by a knit shawl collar closer to the civilian cossack style. Beveled pocket flaps echoed the pocket flaps on the coat-style uniform shirt. Finally, the waist band was changed to an elasticized band in a muticolored wool knit secured with two buttons to ensure a wind-tight fit.

Surviving  examples of the CCC lumber jacket show some variation in fine details. Some have five placket buttons above the two-button waistband closure, others six. Buttons can be plastic or, less commonly, wood. On some models, the elasticized waistband completely covers the placket; on others, it stops short at the placket edge leaving a plain wool placket down to the bottom hem. Some jackets with the plain wool placket at the hem also include cloth backing on the back of the placket. Most of the jackets were dyed to a medium OD shade, but some appear almost brown.

Most of the elasticized waistbands are in a red palette, but multicolored green waistbands also appear. Developed prior to 1933 for civilian garments, these multi-hued elasticized waistbands became a signature feature of Quartermaster Corps jackets designed exclusively for the CCC -- they do not appear on non-CCC Army designs.

Trim, flexible, and warm for the weight, the OD lumber jacket was a winner. Unique to the CCC, it became an icon of the Corps. So practical and attractive is the basic design that replica versions are made and worn as streetwear to this day. 

This jacket has caused considerable confusion among militaria collectors. Due to its close resemblance to its military progenitor, it has made its way into some reference books under the misnomer "wool A-1 flight jacket." In truth, there is no evidence that this jacket was designed for the Army Air Corps or was ever original issue for Air Corps pilots. However, there is reason to believe that at least some surplus CCC OD lumber jackets were reissued to Army Air Force ground crews during World War II. 

Reproductions of this garment have been made several times by different vendors, but these too need to be handled with caution.  

The noted Japanese heritage workwear house Buzz Rickson's produced a fine quality reproduction some years ago, but it was misidentified as a "wool A-1 flight jacket," and its authenticity was compromised by the application of a spurious US Army Air Force logo under the shawl collar. Fortunately this logo is easily concealed if the collar is kept rolled down. A second Japanese heritage boutique, The Real McCoy, currently offers an entirely correct, high-quality reproduction without the spurious USAAF details.  Yet another fine Japanese boutique, Warehouse Co., presently offers a version in the less common brown shade.

Other reproductions of declining authenticity have been offered by vendors such as Alpha Industries, Spearhead Militaria, and Top Pots. Most of these second-tier replicas have a modern monochrome elasticized waistband and/or collar that bears little resemblance to the correct, CCC-specific multicolored elasticized wool knits

In addition to the OD wool jacket, another CCC-specific lumber jacket was produced in buffalo check, a black and red plaid. This distinctly non-military plaid cloth closely resembles the fabrics used in civilian Mackinaw-cloth work jackets of the period. 

The original buffalo check fabric was developed and popularized by the famous Woolrich Mill in Pennsylvania; however, by the 1930s similar plaids were available from many woolen mills. 

The distinguished militaria collector Mr. Kenneth Lewis, author of the US Army uniform history Doughboy to GI: US Army Clothing and Equipment 1900-1945, has kindly provided images of an original example of this extremely rare buffalo check CCC jacket from his personal collection. 

Though it shares a superficial silhouette with the OD lumber jacket discussed above, the buffalo check jacket differs in a number of details. Rather than being made separately from knit wool, the shawl collar of the plaid jacket is made from the same fabric as the body of the coat. Similarly, the cuffs too are made from coat material rather than knit, and are closed with a single button.  Lastly, front patch pockets have a scalloped flap and V-shaped bottoms, and are much more ornate that the square pockets with notched flaps of the OD wool jackets. 

In essence, this jacket seems to be a single-breasted version of a contemporary logger's coat as much or more than it is an adaptation of the flight or cossack jacket pattern. 

Mr. Lewis' jacket bears an original QMC tag giving a tentative specification date of May 16, 1935 and an ECW contract number dated July 18, 1935. Given the apparently short production run, I hypothesize that the buffalo check lumber jacket predates the common OD cossack version and represents either an experimental design, or, an expedient procurement of an essentially civilian pattern.

CCC lumber jackets in buffalo check have been reproduced twice by heritage workwear boutiques, once by Buzz Rickson and once by The Real McCoy. The Rickson is a fanatically accurate stitch-for-stitch reproduction of this exact original, right down to the same spec and contract dates on the tag. The McCoy replica has a bolder plaid pattern and somewhat more severe pockets; it may be patterned on a subtly different unknown original.

For a warm underlayer to replace the WWI-surplus jerkins for the CCC, the Quartermaster Corps selected a standard Army V-neck sweater made to a pattern adopted in April 1933. 

Designed to be a warmth layer for ground forces, this heavy worsted wool sweater in a ribbed shaker knit proved too warm for most foot troops. However, it found favor with the mechanics of the growing Army Air Corps. Just as pilots needed new kinds of workwear in the 1920s, so too did the mechanics who cared for the aircraft on the ground.  Working outdoors on the flight line or in cold and draughty hangers, but needing flexibility and dexterity to reach deep inside cramped fuselages and engine mounts, the mechanics found the new V-neck sweater a perfect winter working layer. Carried in the Army Air Force clothing table under the title "Sweater, Mechanic's, OD Worsted, Type A,"  it became a staple of Army Air Force ground crews throughout the 1930s and into World War II.

Military clothing historian Charles R. Lemons notes the following identifying details:

This mid-thigh sweater is knitted of heavy weight olive drab wool with stretch knit bottom and sleeve cuffs. Overall, the knit is a herringbone pattern, with the sleeves knitted separately and sewn on. The standing neck opening is V shaped in the front and is made of tightly knit, lighter weight wool which is doubled over and sewn into place. The sleeve cuffs and waistband are knitted as part of the basic sweater, but also in a tighter weave.

ECW contracts for true Specification 8-97 sweaters with the full ribbed Shaker knit stitch were issued as early as August 1935. Later CCC production followed a tentative specification adopted on April 8, 1936. It is possible this later tentative spec relaxed the requirement for the true ribbed shaker stitch in favor of a simpler, more economical stitch, possibly a half fisherman's rib.

Type A Mechanic's sweaters are extremely common in CCC images from 1936 onwards. 

The wool lumber jackets discussed above were three-season garments, warm enough for mild winters in a temperate climate but not suited to the rigors of a northern winter. CCC boys in the Pacific Northwest, Upper Midwest, and New England required a true winter jacket.

In May 1935 the QMC released a new tentative specification for a true heavyweight wool winter work coat for the Conservation Corps made from heavy Melton cloth. This clean-sheet-of-paper design seemingly drew largely on civilian patterns for inspiration. It closely resembles a contemporary Pacific Northwest Mackinaw-cloth logger's or hunter's jacket, including the cape-style doubled fabric at the shoulders, two patch pockets on the lower front, and falling collar with notched lapel. The straight rather than fitted cut below the armpits and single rather than double breast present a striking contrast with the fitted waist and fabric belt of M1926 Army-style Mackinaw discussed above. 

Its most remarkable feature is the full-length cape back, in which the second outer layer of fabric is carried down the entire back of the garment nearly to the hem. This double back afforded the wearer extraordinary protection in snowy and wet conditions.

Surviving examples seem to have been finished to a high standard, for example, with cloth backing on the undersides of the wool pocket flaps. As is usual with QMC contracts, manufacturers seem to have been permitted a degree of variation in fine details such as the width of the lapel--in some examples the lapel is equal in depth to the collar, in others, it is a half-inch or so narrower. Some lapels are straight cut, others curve out to a point at the notch below the collar.

The choice of dark navy-blue fabric is an intriguing departure from the QMC's tendency to stick with Army olive drab as the color for CCC woolens. Absent any written documentation, we can only speculate as to the QMC's thinking. Possibly, the Quartermaster felt that a coat which varied so completely from contemporary Army issue should be finished in an distinctive non-military (or at least, non-Army) color. It certainly suggests that the Army had no intention of cross-issuing the jacket to the regular military.

This CCC-specific design seems to have been an entire success. Examples are ubiquitous in wintertime images of CCC enrollees in cold climates from late 1935 onwards. 

Authentic examples of this coat are scarce, and retail for north of $1500. A very high quality reproduction has been offered by the Japanese workwear boutique The Real McCoy.

Simultaneous with the introduction of the 1939 CCC-specific spruce-green dress tunic and trousers, the Corps also received a new, spruce green dress winter coat.  This Mackinaw-style coat would be the first and only dress-quality outerwear ever issued to the CCC.

Though superficially similar to the rough blanket wool "M1926"-style CCC Mackinaws of the middle 1930s, this late CCC coat was finished to a much higher standard, and was clearly designed simultaneously with its companion, the 1939 spruce green tunic. 

The front includes a double breast and a deep shawl collar.  The breast was closed by three pairs of buttons, with a very slight V shaped spacing of button holes, wider at the top and narrower toward the hem. A fabric loop on the left side of the shawl collar permitted it to be closed up tight with a hidden fourth top button at need. Two large patch pockets with rounded corners were closed with a V-shaped flap.

The back of the dress coat echoes the pleated design of the companion tunic.  However, the Mackinaw adds an arctuate shoulder yoke, and has four single pleats and one center double pleat running from the belt line to the yoke, rather than four single pleats placed symmetrically above and below the waist as on the tunic. Like the tunic, the coat is cinched at the natural waist with a half-belt. However, where the half-belt of the tunic is a true separate belt secured with buttons at the sides, the belt of the Mackinaw is stitched down across the pleats. The skirt of the coat below the belt is unvented.

With its very trim fit at the waist and lack of a vent to aid in bending, this was clearly a parade ground garment not intended to serve double duty as a work jacket. 

That the CCC was willing to pay for such a high-quality, single use coat speaks to high expectations the CCC leadership had for the 1939 spruce green uniform suite. Stemming the late 1930s decline in enrollment was clearly a top priority: if a sharp, fitted, contemporary dress coat would help, money would be found to pay for it. 

The"railroader" or Stormy Kromer was a ubiquitous wool work hat style in the early decades of the 20th century. The classic Stormy Kromer is a high-domed four-panel wool cap with a wool brim and fold-down ear flaps that tie together above the bill when not needed. 

As Wikipedia explains, legend attributes the design to George "Stormy" Kromer (1876-1970):

"A semi-professional baseball player, [Kromer] later worked as a railroad engineer. Kromer lost many hats to the wind while working on trains, and in 1903 he asked his wife Ida (1877-1960) to make him a warm hat that would stay on more securely. She modified a baseball cap into what became the Stormy Kromer cap by sewing on a pair of ear flaps. A summer version, made from pillow ticking, remains in use among modern American train engineers, and variants with red or blue polka dots were formerly popular in the early 20th century.

Due to popularity with other employees of the railroad, the Kromers formed the Kromer Cap Company in 1903 to produce the caps. In 1919, due to ever increasing demand, the Kromers opened a factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin."

Whether the Kromers deserve sole credit for their namesake style remains debatable. Certainly by 1920 many manufacturers other than Kromer were offering the cap under the generic name "railroader style."

The Quartermaster Corps seems to have adopted two variants of the railroader cap to supplement or replace the Pattern 1907 Arctic in CCC service, which in the best Army style they denoted, literally, "Type 1" and "Type 2."

The Type 1 hat has a four-panel wool crown with a fabric-covered button ornamenting the joint of the crown panels at the top. The interior is insulated with four matching panels of felted wool in a light fawn or buff color. The bottom of the cap is finished with black cloth tape wrapped around the edges of the crown panels and sewn through. The bill is of matching wool fabric to the crown on the exterior with finer fabric on the underside. The bill fabric is affixed to an interior stiffener with two lines of stitching along the edge of the bill.

The CCC Type 1 differs from a standard Kromer style in replacing the exterior folding ear flap with an interior folding flap lined with fur. Folded up into the hat, the fur side of the flap is hidden and the wool side forms a sweatband. Folded down, the fur is against the ears.

At left is an original Type 1 with a QMC tag giving a Tentative Specification date of July 20, 1934, and a CIV contract number with a date of May 27, 1938. The late manufacture date demonstrates the the Type 1 remained in production in parallel with the Specification 6-255 Army winter cap discussed below.

The CCC "Type 2" railroader is, simply, a standard Stormy Kromer.

The four-panel crown and interior felted lining are similar to the Type 1. However, the Type 2 cap retains the signature Kromer fold-up external wool ear flap. Each end of the flap is pierced with two small holes finished with metal grommets. A flat fabric ribbon can be threaded through the holes in a cross pattern to lace up the earflaps above the brim when not in use.

On the interior of the cap, a 1" fabric sweatband separates the edge of the crown from the beginning of the felt lining.

At left is an original Type 2 with a worn QMC tag. A partial CIV contract number is legible, but the date of the contract can no longer be read. A tentative spec date includes the year 1934, but the exact month and day are obscured. 

Other than the ubiquitous and much-loved "suntan" khaki uniform of the later 1930s, the CCC seems to have provided only one other item of special uniform equipment for camps in extremely hot climates: the American pressed fiber sun helmet, colloquially (though not entirely accurately) termed a "pith helmet."

The U.S. pressed fiber helmet was invented by entrepreneur Jesse B. Hawley of Geneva, Illinois. Hawley's product was, in essence, an Americanized version of the classic British Army sun helmet of the 19th century. That helmet is turn was a product of 19th century British colonialism in India: a rigid, lightweight summer hat in the European military helmet style made from Sholapith or shola pith, a dried milky-white spongy plant matter from Aeschynomene species native to India. In its original form the pith helmet was covered in linen and wrapped with a decorative cloth band (or puggaree).

Hawley's Americanized version dispensed with the cloth cover. Instead, Hawley developed a pressing and manufacturing process that made the actual fiber material impervious to water. Military helmet historian Peter Suciu describes the Hawley design as taking:

"the basic shape of a safari helmet, complete with a faux ventilator at the top and a faux wrapping of puggaree around the dome of the helmet–the latter ironic because previous American sun helmets never used a puggaree. For ventilation, there were a number of vent holes with grommets on each side. The early helmets had three lower vent holes with two vents above, while the post-wartime examples feature four lower ventilation holes."

Hawley filed for a patent for his design on February 4, 1935 and the patent was awarded in March 1938.

Throughout the later 1930s Hawley vigorously marketed his helmet to police forces as the "Hawley Trooper." It would seem that from at least 1937 the CCC adopted the civilian-market Hawley helmet as limited issue for enrollees assigned to extreme hot weather camps on the great plains and in the southwestern United States. Standard white was the common color, but hats in a police olive were also issued.

Left is an image of a surviving Hawley style hat in the less common olive color with a definite CCC attribution to a camp in Colorado. The hat has been ornamented as a walking-away souvenir with names and initials of friends. The lack of a front grommet hole identifies it definitively as a pre-WWII, non-military "Hawley Trooper" style hat. 

Perhaps as a result of positive CCC experience with the hat, the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps both adopted the pressed fiber sun helmet during 1940, but military versions made either by Hawley (four faux "puggaree" creases) or the International Hat Company (five creases) had a front grommet to accept a cap badge in the same style as a campaign hat.