My random collection

[ShooterMcGavin]

Started collecting around 1999 when I was in high school, and it grew until about 2004. Haven't added anything to it really since then. Most of the rating badges are new and unissued, though some older/obsolete ratings are present, some right arm rates from WW2 and a few USMS badges.

 

 

Obsolete rates (most merged into other ratings, a few disappeared altogether) and some old WW2 ratings

 

This is all I have for Chief Petty Officers and service marks.

[Lee Ragan]

Nice selection and a good start to a rating badge/ striker collection. Collecting those can get adictive (I speak from experience).

Thanks for sharing!

[ShooterMcGavin]

Oh it was an addiction for sure. Most of the rare ratings I have (Aviation Pilot, Nuclear Weaponsman) I found by accident, and it's funny how quickly my eyes always locked onto the rating insignia before anything else. I got those two cheap, about a dollar a pop, since the man who sold them to me specialized more in uniforms and footwear and had a hard time "getting rid of the patches." I cringe when I imagine how much good stuff he might have thrown out over the years. His shop is still open on 42nd Street in NYC, and I drop in on occasion to see what he has, but he gets a little irate when I ask if he has any U.S. Naval ratings, since he has to dig under piles and piles of uniforms and misc. items just to get to the box he ends up tossing them into.