THE ORDER OF THE SCARF
By Don Callison
War Wagon 14
Copyright 1996

    A lot of units in Vietnam wore a variety of scarves.  In D Troop 3rd Squadron of the 5th Air Cavalry we wore triangular, yellow Scarves.

    Legend had it that Ace Cozalio, the Godfather of all War Wagon Aeroscouts, had gotten his grandmother to sew up the first batch of Scarves for our unit. Our Cavalry Scarves weren’t reserved just for pilots and crewmembers, but then, not just any swinging dick was allowed to wear them either. During the 1968 through 1971 timeframe a D Trooper had to earn the right to wear his scarf by participating in a ceremony that required drinking from the skull of a former NVA  soldier. Our Scarves were worn by every deserving trooper in the unit from the lowliest Private on the 1st Sergeant’s shit burning list to the Troop Commander. Once a trooper had earned his Scarf he was rarely seen without it.

    On very rare occasions people from outside of our unit would be honored with the opportunity to participate in our Scarf  Ceremony.

     One raucous night in the Vinh Long Officer’s Club there was a terrific USO stage show featuring Australian performers. Round eyed wimmen with bigger than the usually seen 31AA hooters and really nice......., ah but I digress, anyway, just before intermission we got wind that one of the Troop commanders from the 7th of the 1st Air Cavalry was going to “make a presentation” of one those wretched black Cavalry Stetson hats to a couple of the female singers.

    We the only unit in Viet Nam to wear tan colored Stetsons and they were too hard to get to just give away.

    Major Delmer Livengood, the current Commander of D Troop, leaned over to me and above the din hollered, “Go get the Skull and bring some Scarves”.  I was the Skull’s "custodian" at the time. No you won’t find that listed on any Efficiency Report as an “additional duty”.

    I quickly and discreetly retrieved the sacred chalice from its hiding place. Several of us loaded the brown semi-toothless, nasty and ratty looking old VC’s head with beer and dinner leftovers from around our tables. I draped a yellow Scarf over the Skull for concealment and handed it to the CO.

    He headed for the stage as the hat presentation was in progress and the smiling, lovely, mini-skirted young things had just put on their new black Cav hats. Maj. Livengood announced that we wished to bestow upon them the honor of earning the coveted  Yellow Cavalry Scarves.  He withdrew the scarf and offered the Skull for them to participate in our traditional toast.

    It took a few seconds for the girls to realize what was being proffered, when they did, the girls in the black Stetsons began shrieking. The hats went flying one way and the wimmens ran the other. The rest of the girls scampered screaming off the stage. A commotion arose from the rear of the club. The chubby club manager came prancing through the crowd. He was yelling in his squeaky, nearly soprano voice, “30 DAYS! D TROOP! 30 DAYS! GET OUT! GET OUT! The  airfield commander, who was pretty much of a dickhead was right behind the manager for extra muscle. We took our skull and our Scarves and the thirty of us trashed the club on the way out.  The show continued without us or the singers. Seems there wasn’t a real Trooper in whole bunch. We had to eat messhall food for the next month but it was worth it just to see the expressions on the performer’s faces.