Fifty Mission Cap

"Fifty Mission Cap" is a song by Canadian rock group The Tragically Hip. The song was released in 1992 off of the band's third full-length album, "Fully Completely".

Lyrics

The song's lyrics describe the mysterious disappearance of deceased Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player Bill Barilko. Barilko, who donned the blue and white Maple Leaf sweater for five seasons, scored the Stanley Cup clinching goal for the Leafs over rivaled Montreal Canadiens in the 1951 cup finals. Four months and five days later, Barilko climbed into a small, single-engine airplane with friend and dentist, Henry Hudson. The plane disappeared between Rupert House and Timmins, Ontario, leaving no trace of Barilko or Hudson.

Eleven years later, on June 7, 1962, helicopter pilot Gary Fields discovered the plane wreckage roughly 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Cochrane, Ontario. Barilko was finally laid to rest in his home town of Timmins, the same year that the Maple Leafs won their next Stanley Cup.

The song's lyrics also reference the honorary fifty mission cap, mentioned in the song's title. The fifty mission cap was the leather hat given to the aces of the Allied airforces in World War II to signify their participation in 50 aerial missions.

Title

The fifty-mission cap reference is actually the peaked uniform cap, not the leather flying helmet, of Allied airmen of the World War Two period. It is most commonly associated with American Army Air Force personnel, although it wasn't unheard of amongst other allied airmen. Wearing a crushed, beat-up cap was an unspoken testament to many missions flown and would confer upon the wearer the panache of a seasoned vet in the officer's mess, or out on the town on leave (all the better as a "chick magnet"). (The rough present-day equivalent would be a Harley-Davidson jacket for a biker, with obvious weathering in the elements to prove he'd been down the highway a-plenty... reasoning being the just-off-the-rack look doesn't score you any points.) "Sprogs" (rookie pilots in the RAF and Commonwealth air forces) wanted to prove themselves, or at very least look the part, so subtly beating up one's cap to simulate the swagger of the vets became quite commonplace. On operations, it would be more common, if not mandated by regulations, to wear the leather helmet with sewn-in headset as battle-dress. There seem to have been many exceptions to the rule, though. Weather permitting (flying at 20,000 feet with unprotected ears in a European winter would be no joke), some aircrew would opt for their uniform caps. Wearing a headset for intercom communication would be a must regardless of the headgear worn by a crewman, so the cap would inevitably be crushed to the skull out of expediency. It soon became the badge of honour of the "old-timers" on a bomber squadron.