Out of Uniform

Having commanded one of the U.S. Army’s last horse cavalry troops in 1943, the photos accompanying “A Few Good Cavalrymen” (TV Times, March 12) made me snicker. The spread-eagle hat badge was only worn on dress caps, never on campaign hats, the proper insignia for which was the unit’s crest. Campaign hats worn by cavalrymen had chin straps, with brims pushed up, not pulled down in front and back (only by rookies briefly!). And if Don Johnson’s character was a sergeant major, his chevrons are wrong and were those of a first sergeant; there should be a star, not a diamond, above the rockers.

So much for authenticity. Also, as the son of a cavalryman who was once was Gen. (Douglas) MacArthur’s intelligence officer, I’ll eat my TV Times if the general ever ordered U.S. horses to be slaughtered in Mexico (as depicted in HBO’s “In Pursuit of Honor” last month).

William S. Koester, Capt. (Cav.) U.S.A.-Ret., Upland