Baseball cap : USS Tripoli

Navy blue wool baseball-style cap sewn to the front of which is a patch with, 'USS TRIPOLI LPH 10' embroidered in gold cotton. The cap has a heavily soiled plastic-backed cotton sweatband on which is written in black ink, 'SIG: PERRYMAN R127781 RAN'. Written in black ink on the underside of the brim is, 'DOC MYERS H MIEEF [?] MYERS BAS V3 [?] + 415 13 1954 MEDICAL SECTION 1ST BATTALION 3RD MARINES' around which is, also in black ink, a pattern of stars and wreaths.

Cap collected by Chief Petty Officer Signals Yeoman (CPOSY) Duncan John Perryman during his service in HMAS Tobruk as part of UN operations in Somalia. UNOSOM II (United Nations Operation in Somalia) was the second phase of the United Nations intervention in Somalia. It ran from March 1993 until March 1995. UNOSOM II carried on from the US-controlled (but UN sanctioned) UNITAF, which had in turn taken over from the ineffectual UNOSOM I mission. All three of these interventions were aimed at creating a secure enough environment for humanitarian operations to be carried out in the increasingly lawless and famine-struck country. The RAN played an important part in the UNOSOM deployment, transporting the battalion group equipment, vehicles, and some troops, to Somalia on board the training ship HMAS Jervis Bay and the heavy landing ship HMAS Tobruk. Tobruk subsequently remained in the area in support, providing logistic support to the Australians and UNITAF, and conducted surveillance off the Somali coast. Its helicopter was used in ship-to-shore transport of personnel. Tobruk was also used by the land forces for rest and recreation. USS Tripoli (LPH-10), an Iwo Jima class amphibious assault ship, was launched on 31 July 1965 and commissioned on 6 August 1966 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. In 1992 USS Tripoli was ordered to Somalia. Serving off Mogadishu, she conducted the first landing of forces in support of Operation Restore Hope.