No Touchy, No Feely!!
Rank badge positioning becomes a problem when someone fails to take specifics into consideration in deciding where rank badges should go. (Hey, I only posted that photo to get your attention, you sillies!)
From the article: A shortsighted 2004 uniform change intended to protect soldiers paradoxically has left female service members more vulnerable, but to a different, internal threat. The new Army uniform has a collar designed to be worn in an up-position to protect the neck while wearing body armor, thus changing the rank location from the collar to the chest. However, this well-intentioned shift has had unforeseen consequences in creating a possible sexual harassment and assault factor. The new rank placement has created some uncomfortable situations for male and female soldiers alike — and effectively gives service members and civilians a free pass to ogle a women’s breasts, while both parties are left in the dark regarding the other’s intentions. – article
Okay, so some clever genius decides to change rank badge positioning in 2004 and here we are, 17 years later, and it’s a problem because nobody thought Us Girls would find our way into the Go Shoot ‘Em zone?
If I recall correctly, during Those Vietnam Times, the field officers wore dull brown rank pins on their collars, the enlisted ranks had similar brown pins, and their fatigues/field uniforms were plain old green. Why brown? Because Charlie could spot glittering bronze pins and target the wearer much more easily. I think there were hat pins, too. Now camo designed to hide the wearer (only works on pheasants) doesn’t allow for that because the design was changed to allow the collar to be popped up, so as to accommodate body armor. So why not just put the damned things on sleeves and shoulders like they used to be? The Navy’s been doing it for a couple of centuries now, y’know.
The rest of the story is at the link, as usual, and the author does make several good points. Some changes are quite unnecessary and moving rank badges down to the center of the thorax is the brainchild of a nitwit. Put them back on the sleeves, above the elbow, cloth patches like we had for dungarees for field day duty on the decks, and that should stop the concerns about touchy-feely nonsense.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Darwin Awards
The rank should never have been placed on the sternum. How many Generals do we have at this point, shouldn’t they be restricted from golfing ‘fore this “problem” is “solved”?
I can do it, with differentiation between enlisted and officer grades, but it’ll cost the dotgov $100M.
Ball’s in your court, pent-ah-going-going-gone.
Copied it from the Brits tryin’ to be “European” and trendy, they did… how we got the F-tarded beret, too.
Those 2 Chicks in the above pic look familiar. Dig those crazy Chicks. Who wears tank Tops bop bop bop bop bop bop bop, Sorry, that’s the intro to short shorts, Royal Teens, 1957 on the NYC power label.
Used to have to suggest to ladies dressed in low-cut tops wearing something higher-necked, or they were not allowed on range. If they demurred, just had them pick up a freshly fired cartridge case and told them to imagine it nestled on their sternum. Never had to ask twice.
Got a permanent scar on the left side of my neck, failure to pull the aforementioned collar tight enough. My buddy on the left put three very hot casings into my collar during reflexive fire training. I bet that fucker is still laughing.
Yeah.
On a gun team as a young Soldier.
Rounds kept hitting my Kapod and rolling down the inside of the back of my shirt..
My screaming was muted by the noise from the gun.
Crazy pattern of blisters that became small scars.
Short shorts…
https://youtu.be/UcvjXAtzaMU?t=1
Sew on Sleeves rank are ok until you get promoted and some ahole with rank doesn’t like seeing the pin holes from your previous rank on your sleeve. Maybe a flap like they have on the chest.
Velcro
At least the Marine rank insignia is usually bigger after promotion for every enlisted rank, thereby negating the pinhole issue. Officers are most likely able to handle this “issue”, if it was to occur.
And please bring back Branch insignia.
Yeah, I miss being able to look around a TOC and figure out who the S2 was, or know when I was talking to a Combat Arms person or a Logistician.
Though I don’t miss people thinking I was still combat Arms because of my EIB (now that is a give away to say: only EIB must have branch detailed).
Yes, bring it back. In the Viet of the Nam, you could tell who was a booney-rat officer just by looking at his pin on brass. Also, all the finish on our jungle boots was worn off. We all wore the jungle fatigues that came out of grab bags of clean ones brought to the field by Huey; they had no insignia on them except for the U.S. Army tape. Only back in the rear, did we pin on rank and branch insignia.
” We all wore the jungle fatigues that came out of grab bags of clean ones brought to the field”
And, as I recall, there was always a shortage of smaller waist-size pants since everyone lost a couple or three inches in their first couple of months.
Forehead. Problem solved. What? Bangs? Ok… earlobe or nostril?
Since when have sailors needed any reason, other than the obvious, to look at women’s chests?
Never…
Reason number 465.4 uniform boards should be eliminated. The ever changing uniforms have nothing to do with making the force more lethal.
Do away with rank all together, after all in the new woke military, everyone is to be equal, Right?
I never had any trouble figuring out who was in charge.
That information was made clear to me from the start with
occasional reminders throughout the day.
I don’t know what the uniform of the day is in Lt. Col. Rachael’s unit, but if it is the same as the rest of the army any “ogling” of the sternumnal area is a waste of time. The phrase “making a mountain out of a molehill” comes to mind (heh).
I always thought having rank insignia on the chest instead of neck & arms was a good idea. The French have been doing it for a long, long, time. I always thought it was to make it harder for snipers to identify leaders.
Long time lurker.
Finally found a hot button topic I want to comment on.
This Karen’s argument is uninformed and totally from her point of view.
The reason the rank is on her breasts is because the Infantry, Artillery and Armor (which is almost the entire US ARMY) have to wear body armor all day day doing their jobs.
For those who served in previous conflicts that pre-date the current personal protection, her Rank on her collar or shoulder boards would be obscured in body armor. So I have to look at her chest, along with everyone else’s, because the rest of the uniform is cover with Kevlar.
What an absolutely disgrace.
I thought men and women were equal anyway. What difference does it make….
she just doesn’t want men to look at her chest…except when she goes downtown with the grand canyon veeneck top on.
So she bitches and moans when they do, and likely bitches and moans when they don’t.
Raising 3 daughters taught me a lot about this…ahem…problem for women.
The shoulder or sleeve are not covered when wearing body armor.
It would be logical to put the rank insignia there.
It would be visible whether armor is worn, or not worn
Sorry not true. When the Kevlar blanket and other components are factored in the total personal protection system only leaves the chest plate visible. That’s why it was chosen to display rank.
The system was researched thoroughly and it incorporated all aspects of not just the items drawn from CIF for individual wear and use.
I do like those women’s guns.
Thank you exPH 2!
You are quite welcome, Doc.
WHAT HAPPENED TO CLICKING ON A PHOTO TO EMBIGGEN IT?!?!?!?!?!
/asking for a friend.
The reason the officer’s insignia was moved from the cuffs to the epaulets or collars was visibility. You can’t quickly tell the rank of an officer when you go by rings of lace (and it marks you out for snipers). All Allied nations in WW1 eventually moved officer’s insignia to the epaulets and enlisted and most NCO insignia to the upper arms.
The trendy tag worn on the chest worn on body armor can only indicate rank at close range from the front.
The Germans in WW2 used 1 to 6 colored cloth bars worn on the upper sleeve to indicate subaltern and field officer rank. They could try that.
Is the new collar worn with body armor a standing collar? You could revert to the WW1 style collar dogs.