How Army cavalry scouts earn their spurs

The Army’s cavalry scouts are hard to miss. Cav scouts, as they’re often called, are the only soldiers who wear a black cowboy hat, aptly named a cav hat. The hats have a 3-inch curved brim, yellow-braided cord around the exterior bucket of the hat, and a black leather chin strap. It’s unique to cavalry scouts and one of the ways their uniforms pay homage to a heritage that dates back to America’s first horse soldiers. 

But for soldiers in this field, it’s not the hat that makes the cav scout, but the spurs. There are two kinds of spurs: Silver and gold. Silver spurs are awarded to cav scouts who pass a spur ride, while gold spurs are reserved for those who deploy to a combat zone.

Traditionally, cav scouts don’t get their silver spurs until they complete a spur ride, which is a grueling 24 to 48-hour evaluation of a new scout’s soldiering skills, similar to an Expert Infantryman Badge evaluation, but tailored to their mission as mechanized or heliborne reconaissance troops.