The Uniform Tells the Story

In another of what is bound to be several posts in a series leading up to Veteran's Day, I thought I'd blog a bit about military uniforms.

One of the things I really liked about the Army was the uniform. Sure, I thought I looked cool, but beyond that, you can really tell a lot about a person simply by the uniform. Their uniform tells you where they've been, and what they did while they were there.

You can tell a person's name and rank; that much is obvious. But what else does the uniform say?

For one thing, you can quickly determine whether or not that soldier has been in combat. In the army, the unit patch is worn on the left shoulder. In other words, you can always tell what unit a soldier is currently in by the patch on his left shoulder. If a soldier serves in combat with a particular unit, he is then entitled to wear that unit's patch on his right shoulder (referred to by Army Regulation 670-1 as a "Former Combat Service Unit Patch") even after he leaves the unit.

In my case, I wore the 82nd Airborne Division patch on both shoulders until I transferred out in 1994; then I continued to wear the 82nd patch on my right shoulder, but my current unit patch on the left. So, a naked right shoulder means no combat, a patch on the right shoulder tells you he or she went to combat with that unit.

What else can you determine? Well, some awards are worn on every class of uniform. The Parachutist Badge ("jump wings"), Air Assault Badge, and Pathfinder Badge are great examples. Which brings up an interesting side note: there is great rivalry between these different specializations. Paratroopers think they are the toughest, Air Assault troops insist they're wrong. Who's right? I always contended that you weren't entitled to make any comparisons unless you went to both schools, which is what I did. The answer: they're both right, but in different ways for different reasons. More on that in another blog post.

Back to the uniform. While not worn on utility uniforms (BDU's, DCU's, etc. - the camouflage uniforms Rambo made so popular), ribbons and medals are worn on class A and B uniforms. These also tell the story of where the soldier has been, and what he did while he was there. I'll use my own class B uniform as an example:



What does the uniform say about me? Obviously I was a Sergeant. You can see the double set of wings, which probably indicates I was in some form of elite unit or another (having one set of wings is rare, having two is even more so). The fact that I'm wearing the Parachutist Badge on top of the Air Assault Badge probably indicates that I was in an Airborne unit, since under Army regulations, both badges are equal.

Beneath the ribbon bar, you can see two badges: one is an expert driver badge, which tells you I logged a lot of miles in a military vehicle (for some reason, as strange as it sounds, that silly award was fairly coveted. I still have no idea why.) You also see that I qualified as expert with the M-16 rifle.

Unit patches are not worn on a class B, so there's no way to know that I'm wearing a combat patch. Or is there? Actually, yes, there is. Some of the ribbons are directly related to combat service in Desert Storm. Here's a closer look:


Ribbons and medals read left to right, from top to bottom, going in order of most important or significant, to least important. Foreign awards always come after US awards. In my case, here's what those awards are:

Top Row from left to right:

1. Army Commendation Medal with Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster indicating 2nd award (e.g. I got this award twice)
2. Army Achievement Medal with Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster indicating 2nd award
3. Good Conduct Medal with rope device containing 2 knots indicating 2nd award

Middle row, left to right:

1. National Defense Ribbon
2. Southwest Asia Service Ribbon with single bronze star indicating one campaign
3. Non-Commissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon with numeral 2 indicating 2nd award

Bottom row, left to right:

1. Army Service Ribbon
2. Kuwaiti Liberation Medal (awarded by Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
3. Kuwaiti Liberation Medal (awarded by Kingdom of Kuwait)

So even with no combat patch on this uniform, you could look at the ribbons and glean quite a bit of information about my combat service. You would know that I fought in Desert Storm, and that I only served one tour there. You would also know that I didn't get into any trouble for at least 6 contiguous years of military service, and that on at least 4 occassions, I was honored for individual achievements that set me apart.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could tell this much about a person's civilian career from their clothing? .... "I see you have 7 years of college! Oh, but 3 of them were Law School. *snicker*"