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USPHS Quarantine Flag Shoulder Boards?


MrStiv
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Does anyone here have any information on this shoulder board worn by members of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. There is no information about it in any of the documentation I can find on the Web site, but I think it has something to do with service at a quarantine station and/or a vessel traveling to and from a station.

 

post-168114-0-32264000-1553693603.png

 

Additionally, I noticed that the available stripes did not follow the USPHS CC protocol, which is the same as the Navy/Coast Guard but with different designations (Junior Assistant/Ensign, for example). Instead, there are what appears to be between one and four half-inch stripes like you see on Merchant Marine shoulder boards/sleeves.

 

Thanks for any info!

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I don't know all the details but I believe those are for quarantine officers of the Centers for Disease Control who are not USPHS commissioned members. The flag used to be used by USPHS quarantine inspectors, I guess the CDC just reached back into the history books for insignia. What's really interesting is the use of the maroon color stripes, really old-school!

 

Justin B.

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David Minton

There are good USPHS resources in another part of the forum. It doesn't get a lot of traffic though for posting questions.

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/forum/1469-non-military-government-agencies/

 

I have a small collection of USPHS shoulder boards myself. Just acquired my first set of gray boards, after literally hunting for years.

post-132988-0-28809900-1553699718_thumb.jpg

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Thanks David and Justin! I agree about the maroon stripes--they are really sharp! I also find those gray boards fascinating, I don't think I've ever seen boards of that color.

 

And I appreciate you pointing me to a more appropriate area of the forum for USPHS stuff.

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David Minton

I have a couple of other gray USPHS shoulder boards, but unfortunately they are singles. One has a D device to indicate a Dental Officer. Considering the uniform these boards were for was only used for around five years during and immediately after WWII, the Dental Officer board is probably uncommon to say the least.

 

ETA: Hey, my 300th post!

post-132988-0-01932100-1553700352_thumb.jpg

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Wow, the detail on some of that embroidery from the 1937 regulations is phenomenal!

 

Do you know where I could possibly download the entire manual in one file?

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David Minton

Wow, the detail on some of that embroidery from the 1937 regulations is phenomenal!

 

Do you know where I could possibly download the entire manual in one file?

Sorry, I don't. I would check with the member who originally posted them.

 

There don't seem to be many people collecting USPHS, which is probably a good thing as I suspect there isn't a lot of material to go around. I have a few sets of boards, cap devices, collar devices, one enlisted rating badge, and a bunch of black buttons. No gold buttons though :-(

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Wow, the detail on some of that embroidery from the 1937 regulations is phenomenal!

 

Do you know where I could possibly download the entire manual in one file?

It is available in a few different formats here:

https://archive.org/details/1937regulationsGoverningTheUniformOfOfficersAndEmployeesOfThe/page/n59

 

"Sarge Booker" has been prolific in sharing his collection of information, but it doesn't look like he has posted here in a few years. He did a lot of illustrations of insignia items in pen and ink and had a newsletter called "The Crow's Nest" back in the early '90s.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Herbert+Hillary+Booker+2nd+-+Tujunga%2C+California+-+2009%22

https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Herbert%20Hillary%20Booker%202nd%20-%20Tujunga%2C%20California%20-%202009%22%20crow%27s%20nest

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Thanks Justin for all the links and information! I know a lot of this information will prove useful for me (I write a lot of insignia documentation).

 

What I'm up against right now is the shoulder boards with the Quarantine flag, specifically, what are the ranks/designations for each of the four stripes? Even the 1937 regulations had sleeve stripes coming in 1/2- and 1/4-inch progressions like in the Navy, where an Ensign has a single 1/2-inch stripe and a LT(jg) adds a 1/4-inch, then a Lieutenant has two 1/2-inch.... these come in just four stripes of the same size, like the Merchant Marines.

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Thanks Justin for all the links and information! I know a lot of this information will prove useful for me (I write a lot of insignia documentation).

You're welcome!

 

What I'm up against right now is the shoulder boards with the Quarantine flag, specifically, what are the ranks/designations for each of the four stripes? Even the 1937 regulations had sleeve stripes coming in 1/2- and 1/4-inch progressions like in the Navy, where an Ensign has a single 1/2-inch stripe and a LT(jg) adds a 1/4-inch, then a Lieutenant has two 1/2-inch.... these come in just four stripes of the same size, like the Merchant Marines.

It's may just be GS pay grade, without specific titles. Maybe CDC Public Information could give you more details.

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David Minton

Thanks Justin for all the links and information! I know a lot of this information will prove useful for me (I write a lot of insignia documentation).

 

What I'm up against right now is the shoulder boards with the Quarantine flag, specifically, what are the ranks/designations for each of the four stripes? Even the 1937 regulations had sleeve stripes coming in 1/2- and 1/4-inch progressions like in the Navy, where an Ensign has a single 1/2-inch stripe and a LT(jg) adds a 1/4-inch, then a Lieutenant has two 1/2-inch.... these come in just four stripes of the same size, like the Merchant Marines.

Not sure about your question concerning four stripes. Your boards have three stripes. The USPHS, as well as USN, had rank designated by three stripes, as well as four stripes, of equal width. In the USN, they would be Commander (3 stripes) and Captain (four stripes).

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David: I posted only one image. The available selections were 1 to 4 stripes, all of equal width. I would post an image of all four together but I see no way of doing it except by URL, and the URL doesn't show all four: http://www.uniforms-4u.com/p-us-public-health-service-quarantine-hard-shoulder-boards-19278.aspx

 

I'm aware of the ranks these would indicate in the Navy. In the Commissioned Corps of the U.S., they use different terms for the ranks (although the Navy rank designations are permissible in some situations), such as Director for O-6 (Captain) I was struck by the fact that if they were using Navy equivalents why they would skip some ranks with half-stripes, and also how much it resembled the Merchant Marine system.

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David Minton

David: I posted only one image. The available selections were 1 to 4 stripes, all of equal width. I would post an image of all four together but I see no way of doing it except by URL, and the URL doesn't show all four: http://www.uniforms-4u.com/p-us-public-health-service-quarantine-hard-shoulder-boards-19278.aspx

 

I'm aware of the ranks these would indicate in the Navy. In the Commissioned Corps of the U.S., they use different terms for the ranks (although the Navy rank designations are permissible in some situations), such as Director for O-6 (Captain) I was struck by the fact that if they were using Navy equivalents why they would skip some ranks with half-stripes, and also how much it resembled the Merchant Marine system.

Sorry, I misunderstood your question. I am not sure what those boards are you linked to, but the USPHS Commssionsed Corps uses the same insignia to indicate rank as the USN and USCG. See linked chart hosted on the USPHS website:

 

Uniformed Service Rank Chart - USPHS.govhttps://www.usphs.gov/docs/pdfs/.../Uniformed%20Service%20Rank%20Chart.pdf

post-132988-0-91032900-1553798051_thumb.jpg

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According to Vanguard, who works very closely with all the services and is usually very accurate, the board stripes are based on the General Schedule and go from GS-9 to GS-11, GS-12, and GS-13. I would think they would end at GS-15 since that is the Navy equivalent for Captain, but I'm just quoting what's on their Web site: https://www.vanguardmil.com/pages/search-results-page?q=quarantine

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^Well there you go.

 

Another thing that's interesting is that with one stripe they put the maroon color above it, instead of on both sides like the old USN, or below like the RN.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Wharfmaster

I have USPHS Quarantine Warrant Officer medal group in my collection, with flag boards new in the box.

 

The recipient was a Navy Corpsman during WW2.

 

 

Wharf

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