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Army Specialist 8 & 9 Insignia


iamck94
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And to think I was happy to find Spec 7 collars in subdued and gold. :thumbsup:

 

The upside was the subdued all came on the white plastic backing plates for working dress, I am guessing Hospital or Mess Hall.

 

Timo

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LOOK OUT OLD IMACKI IS BACK ! where you been ? :D

Haha! Well I guess I just haven't had a lot of questions and I haven't been as active in collecting recently.

 

T-Bone would you mind posting a picture of the white backing. I've heard about those but never actually seen one.

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The upside was the subdued all came on the white plastic backing plates for working dress, I am guessing Hospital or Mess Hall.

 

The white plastic backings were also worn with the overcoat, raincoat and optional purchase windbreaker before the gold colored insignia came out.

 

Sometimes instructors ("black hats") wore the white plastic backings on their hats to make the rank more visible. I also seem to recall them being worn on the locally authorized black berets as worn by the 11th ACR and others back in the 70s.

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Haha! Well I guess I just haven't had a lot of questions and I haven't been as active in collecting recently.

 

T-Bone would you mind posting a picture of the white backing. I've heard about those but never actually seen one.

 

Do you want a pair of Spec 7s white backings for FREEE ?, I have a pair.

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Haha! Well I guess I just haven't had a lot of questions and I haven't been as active in collecting recently.

 

T-Bone would you mind posting a picture of the white backing. I've heard about those but never actually seen one.

Here they are :thumbsup:

 

 

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DOES ANY MEMBER WANT A PAIR OF THE WHITE BACKINGS FOR THE RANK OF SPECIALIST 7TH CLASS, FOR FREE-- FOR FREE--FOR FREE, NO CHARGE BUT FOR FREE, I have a pair that I do not want or need, take them of my hands.

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T-Bone, no they did not make a shoulder slide for those. The shoulder slides didn't come into service until '79 when the AG415 shirt came in. They do exist for Spec 5 and 6, however not Spec 4 for some reason.

 

Patches, I have a shoebox full of various Specialist 4-9 rank insigina and I have never even seen these backings. I would like to add them to my collection if it is no hassle to you.

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T-Bone, no they did not make a shoulder slide for those. The shoulder slides didn't come into service until '79 when the AG415 shirt came in. They do exist for Spec 5 and 6, however not Spec 4 for some reason.

 

Patches, I have a shoebox full of various Specialist 4-9 rank insigina and I have never even seen these backings. I would like to add them to my collection if it is no hassle to you.

That's because Sp4 and below did not wear shoulder marks (that is the Army nomenclature for the rank insignia that slide onto the shoulder loops). They wore the gold colored metal chevrons on the shirt collar.

 

The gold colored metal chevrons replaced the white plastic backings worn in combination with the black metal chevrons. It was around the mid-1970's, I think.

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T-Bone, no they did not make a shoulder slide for those. The shoulder slides didn't come into service until '79 when the AG415 shirt came in. They do exist for Spec 5 and 6, however not Spec 4 for some reason.

 

Patches, I have a shoebox full of various Specialist 4-9 rank insigina and I have never even seen these backings. I would like to add them to my collection if it is no hassle to you.

 

Not at all send me a PM, with info, and I'll put them a regular envelope.

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That's because Sp4 and below did not wear shoulder marks (that is the Army nomenclature for the rank insignia that slide onto the shoulder loops). They wore the gold colored metal chevrons on the shirt collar.

 

The gold colored metal chevrons replaced the white plastic backings worn in combination with the black metal chevrons. It was around the mid-1970's, I think.

Right, I said that because I never knew as to why Spec 4 was the only Specialist rank to wear it on the collar.

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  • 2 weeks later...
DOES ANY MEMBER WANT A PAIR OF THE WHITE BACKINGS FOR THE RANK OF SPECIALIST 7TH CLASS, FOR FREE-- FOR FREE--FOR FREE, NO CHARGE BUT FOR FREE, I have a pair that I do not want or need, take them of my hands.

 

 

I would love to have the dres what SPEC & if you still have them. Anthing you are looking for to trade? I have a box full of stuff I don't collect.

 

Hardstripe

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I would love to have the dres what SPEC & if you still have them. Anthing you are looking for to trade? I have a box full of stuff I don't collect.

 

Hardstripe

 

No trade, just pm me with you info on sending it to you. oh, they are for the Spec 7 subdued, one pair .

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Does anyone know if Specialist 8 & 9 rank insignia was ever created. Although no soldier ever made it to those ranks, I assume that those rank patches were created and sold in Clothing Sales or whatever the 1950-60s version of the Army's uniform sales store was called. If those patches were created I assume they'd fetch a hefty price since no soldier made it there. Does anyone know where I can purchase one (either and original or reproduction) or where I can have one made?

 

In 1970 I bought a tanker's jacket that had Specialist 9 chevrons on both sleeves and a triangle patch of someone in a tank outfit with a white name strip with black letters and a black silk strip with golden-yellow letters "U.S.ARMY." It had been worn and obvisouly dry-cleaned often enough to cause some fading to the patches. Picked it up in an army thrift store run by the lady volunteers at Firt Ord, California. Who really knows? :think:

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  • 3 years later...

Well I finally found a photo of the elusive Specialist 8 and 9 ranks actually being worn by real soldiers. So here's proof! Actually, this is a screen shot from a short film called "Violet" released in 1981. So at the very least it shows these insignia were plentiful enough in the early 80's that a Hollywood costume designer was able to procure them for a couple of fictitious soldiers.

post-1761-0-61844800-1429707267.jpg

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When the Army ordered subdued chevrons in 1966 manufactures made the chevrons on the same machines used to make the Gold on green chevrons. The SP8 and SP9 were abolished in 1965. Maybe the manufacturer did not get the word and manufactured subdued Sp8 and SP9. Or they used these ranks as tests to see how the finished product would turn out.

 

I have rarely seen subdued SP8 and SP9 and any that have come up on ebay sold for $80 to $100 each. I have one of each that appear to be made overseas somewhere. Perhaps Vietnam or Korea. I purchased them from Harry McCalister in the late 1980s. He said they came from Vietnam.

 

post-60620-0-76781800-1429728677.jpg

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SP8 and SP9 chevrons were made in gold on green, gold on blue, gold on white and subdued. I need a gold on blue SP8 to complete my set. Anyone have one?

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  • 3 weeks later...
Martinjmpr

T-Bone, no they did not make a shoulder slide for those. The shoulder slides didn't come into service until '79 when the AG415 shirt came in. They do exist for Spec 5 and 6, however not Spec 4 for some reason.

 

Patches, I have a shoebox full of various Specialist 4-9 rank insigina and I have never even seen these backings. I would like to add them to my collection if it is no hassle to you.

Minor quibble with this. I don't think the AG415 shirt wasn't introduced until some time in 1980. I joined in August 1980 and the AG415 shirt was not part of our clothing issue. We were issued the long sleeve khaki shirt for wear underneath the Class A jacket, and also the short sleeved khaki shirt and khaki trousers for Class B wear. I first saw the AG415 shirt when I was a patient at Martin Army Hospital in late 1980 getting knee surgery. It was an optional purchase item at that time but shortly thereafter the khaki's were eliminated from issue and the Class B uniform became the green trousers with the AG-415 shirt. If I was to guess I'd imagine the AG-415 was probably introduced around the beginning of the 1981 fiscal year, which would have been 1 October 1980. I was in basic training then so we wouldn't have seen them as our class B's were khakis.

 

Initially, only officers wore shoulder marks as all enlisted personnel wore the gold colored collar rank insignia on the AG-415 shirt. I don't think shoulder marks for NCO's were authorized until 1981 or 1982 at the earliest.

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