A soldier wears a "boonie hat" during Exercise Southern Vanguard 24 in Oiapoque, Brazil, on Nov. 15, 2023. (Spc. Joseph Liggio/Army National Guard) Sunburned necks and scorched ears no longer.

Soldiers wear sun hats, better known as boonies, during the the Jungle Operations Training Course at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii in 2021. Gen. James Isenhower III, commander of the 1st Armored ...

Soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas, can wear “boonie hats” to protect them from the sun, which shines an average of 302 days per year in El Paso.

Rank insignia, at minimum, must be pinned on or sewn on. The rank is worn centered on the front of the hat, left to right, and top and bottom. Nametape will not be sewn on the sun hat.

An airman's boonie hat rests on an M4 at a guard post in Southwest Asia in May 2017. (photo by Staff Sgt. Alexander W. Riedel/U.S. Air Force) Airmen at Nellis Air Force Base are out of luck for now.

Boonie hats are round, wide-brimmed sun hats worn by troops in particularly hot or tropical climates, such as the jungles of Vietnam, that call for more-breathable headgear with greater skin coverage.