When I told him that that was too bad, and we were going to have it out, his friends appeared from around the corner of the building, surrounded me. I took a swing at one, and a beating on me ensued. I wasn't hurt, I think they were too drunk to get a good kick in on me after I went down, and I managed to break free and grab a swab to fend them off with.
But it always puzzled me, and I assumed (correctly, IMO) that they were just looking for a white guy to beat on.
For years, it never occurred to me what the guy supposedly didn't like about my hat. It was simply a squadron hat with the designation on the front, VA-46.
Didn't like my squadron I guessed? Had some kind of grudge? It was only recently that I realized it, feeling a bit dense in the process.
My squadron was VA-46, and it was a Scottish themed squadron, we had tartan painted on our planes along with a Scottish herald and a motto "Vincere Vela's Mori" (translating to either "Victory or Death" or "Conquer or Die")
Here is one of our Corsairs performing the first trap by any plane on the USS Eisenhower:
Our officers had ceremonial kilts and glengarry hats sporting the MacDougal tartan.
The squadron was named "The Clansmen".
LOL, for many of the intervening years since I was attacked, I never connected the possibility that the guy and his buddies thought "Clansmen" was equivalent to "Klansmen". I admit to feeling a bit dense about that when it did occur.