Drill sergeant badge question

[AKC123]

Recently acquired a DCU from a fellow forum member that wears a Drill Sergeant Badge. I’m aware that once earned they can be worn for the remainder of a soldiers service. Just wondering if DCUs were ever worn in boot camp/basic training or if a DCU with a Drill sergeant badge would indicate someone was formally a drill sergeant and then deployed? Thanks  

[Martinjmpr]

I can't imagine any circumstance where a drill sergeant would wear a DCU in a training environment. 

 

The drill sergeant badge is like any other army badge and once its earned can be worn for the remainder of the soldier's career.  I've even seen commissioned and warrant officers who wear the DS badge that they earned when they were enlisted.  So a DCU with a DS badge means a soldier who earned the badge and then later deployed to a combat zone where the DCU was issued. 

[Martinjmpr]

Now, having said the above, let me point out that AFAIK the DCU was always an "organization issue" uniform.  IOW they never sold DCU uniforms in the Military Clothing Sales store (MCSS) and solders were not required to maintain DCU's at their own cost.  DCUs were issued prior to a deployment and in most cases they were returned to the Central Issue Facility (CIF) when the solder returned from their overseas tour (some active duty units may have been required to maintain DCUs, I'm not sure as I was off active duty by then and in the reserve components.) 

 

For this reason, the only thing that was REQUIRED to be sewn onto a DCU were the "bare minimum" uniform requirements:  Name above the right breast pocket, US ARMY tape above the left breast pocket, current unit SSI (shoulder patch) on the LEFT shoulder and US flag on the RIGHT shoulder.  That's the MINIMUM to meet AR-670-1 requirements.  Rank could be worn as a pin-on and any other insignia like the FWTS-SSI ("combat patch") combat/special skill badges (jump wings, EIB/CIB, and Drill Sergeant badge would be examples of these) were OPTIONAL for the wearer and did not have to be sewn on. 

 

Some soldiers (like me, for instance  ) took pride in our appearance and in the awards we earned and paid out of our own pockets to have our FWTS-SSI and special skill badges sewn on.  Others chose to do the "bare minimum" and made do with pin-on rank and no other badges.  It was totally up to them. 

 

Every overseas location I was at had a local tailor shop that would not only sew on badges at the soldiers expense (usually very cheap like $0.50/patch) but they also sold embroidered name tags, theater-made patches (which looked very different from "issued" patches) and would even make unauthorized or "morale" patches at the soldiers request. 

[AKC123]

Great info thanks I really appreciate it. The pin on vs sewn on rank on desert uniforms is something Iv been interested in. I was under the impression that the DBDU or the late 80’s early 90’s predominately uses pin on rank insignia how we in Kevin Borns book it appears that green BDU tank were sewn on quite frequently if not more often. I didn’t think the pin on rank are still used when the DCU came along. 

[AKC123]

18 minutes ago, AKC123 said:

Great info thanks I really appreciate it. The pin on vs sewn on rank on desert uniforms is something Iv been interested in. I was under the impression that the DBDU or the late 80’s early 90’s predominately uses pin on rank insignia how we in Kevin Borns book it appears that green BDU tank were sewn on quite frequently if not more often. I didn’t think the pin on rank are still used when the DCU came along. 

Full of errors. 
 

DBDUs OF the late 80’s early 90’s predominantly USED

 

HOWEVER in Kevin Born’s book

 

BDU RANK were sewn on 

sorry