Full Color Metal Pin On Rank On BDU PC

[Hokies2016]

At about 0:22 of this video (

) the major that they're interviewing is wearing full color metal pin on rank on his patrol cap. Was this common practice at some point? I thought that only subdued sew on and pin on was authorized when the Army was still wearing BDUs, and that full color pin on was the Marine Corps thing for officer BDUs (and even then Marines don't wear patrol caps or rank on covers).

[KurtA]

In the early 80's I wore color rank on the BDU cap. I might add the cap was only worn in garrison (at least where I was - 2nd Armored Div - Ft Hood, TX) . We only wore helmets in the field (which always had subdued rank insignia - either sew-on or metal on the helmet cover).

[Hokies2016]

In the early 80's I wore color rank on the BDU cap. I might add the cap was only worn in garrison (at least where I was - 2nd Armored Div - Ft Hood, TX) . We only wore helmets in the field (which always had subdued rank insignia - either sew-on or metal on the helmet cover).

 

Was that reflected in regs or was it more of the first O6 or whatever authority it was saying to wear full color rank on the bdu cap?

[KurtA]

 

Was that reflected in regs or was it more of the first O6 or whatever authority it was saying to wear full color rank on the bdu cap?

 

I don't know what the regs stated, but the wear of color officer rank insignia on the BDU went well beyond any local command - I believe it was Army-wide (based on my travels to other bases). I should add I only ever saw subdued chevrons for enlisted personnel on their BDU caps.

 

I think the primary reason for all of this was so you'd know whom to salute while walking down the street on base.

[patches]

 

I don't know what the regs stated, but the wear of color officer rank insignia on the BDU went well beyond any local command - I believe it was Army-wide (based on my travels to other bases). I should add I only ever saw subdued chevrons for enlisted personnel on their BDU caps.

 

I think the primary reason for all of this was so you'd know whom to salute while walking down the street on base.

Your damn right Kurt, one day at Hood in Cav Country in the early fall of 1980, ( this was when of course we were still wearing ODs), a fellow soldier walking towards me, don't pay any mind to him really, a kind of medium sized chubby guy, he pauses as were side by side, and says "A Salute" it's then I notice much to my embarrassment he was a 2nd Lt of the QM, yes he was wearing a subdued metal Brown bar with metal collar badges as well. I apologized, gave him a High Ball and went on.You couldn't really blame me, that was something I hadn't seen yet, metal subdued insignia on an officer, even the metal subdued collar badges lent itself to the "low viz" appearance.

 

A bet he was getting alot of that, you know, back then as you know, you're so use to the metal Silver/Gold ranks on the soft cap, he probably soon switched to full color badge on the soft cap I'm thinking.

 

And true, in May 82 when we finally got the BDUs in Alaska, officers did indeed wear full color ranks, thank god right!

[Martinjmpr]

AFAIK officers always wore full color rank on their BDU caps, so you'd know who to salute. Enlisted wore subdued, either pin-on or embroidered. This was during the entire BDU period.

 

For field use in conventional units, camouflage was never an issue since the BDU cap was normally not worn in the field - in the field the only acceptable headgear was the helmet (which of course always had subdued rank, officer or enlisted.)

 

Only time I ever saw an officer wear a BDU cap with a subdued insignia was in SOCOM units where the "patrol cap" was the normal headgear worn in the field. The "Patrol cap" was a BDU cap but had the following added to it: Name tape on the back, "ranger eyes" or "cat eyes" above the name tape and sometimes a piece of "glint tape" attached to the top of the cap.

 

It was different with the DCU. Since the DCU was only issued to units that were deploying to a combat theater, only subdued insignia was worn by officers and enlisted.

[Martinjmpr]

BTW the same practice was true of pre-BDU OD fatigues. Enlisted soldiers wore pin-on subdued rank, but officers always wore full color/shiny metal pin on rank.