General of the Army rank epaulette question - help anyone?

[achern]

Gents, I have two pairs of these General of the Army epaulettes. Both came in sealed plastic bags with the government contract cardboard tags with the manufacturing details on them. But both are different colours and sizes. Why is this so?

[Doc]

Hard to say, since I think the only 5-star alive after the 1960s who would have worn that uniform was Omar Bradley. Maybe some company was just trying to get ahead of the curve and the small one was for a female officer :-) . Actually, As I remember, the shoulder boards for use on the Class B shirt came in two sizes, and you were to wear whichever fit your build better. Doc

[achern]

Indeed, Omar Bradley did wear the smaller type of epaulette, which was more pronouncedly green, but his cloth material looks slightly different. I wonder if anyone has pictures of him wearing the cloth epaulettes. I cannot seem to find any on the internet.

[Doc]

I am sure he did, but he was aware of appearances, and I am only aware of photos of him at that time in the full Class A uniform with jacket..... Sorry. Doc

[Sal]

The dates of the 2 items from the contractor cardboard will tell the tale. Several possibilities here. If 2 different manufacturers and dates (periods), then color variation may be due to changes by the service in the color requirements. The detail on the smaller is better, but it looks like the female size IMO. Although I don't believe a contractor made 5 star sets in the event there was a female GOA. That being said, I believe 2 variations of from 2 manufacturers from different eras (and contracts).

Tony

[dmiller8]

The rank slides (shoulder marks) were introduced in the early 1980's when the Army transitioned from the old poly-cotton khaki Class B uniform to one in which a light green dress shirt would be worn with the Class A trousers. Initially, the officers wore green slides while the NCO wore black slides. If I recall correctly, the officer rank slides changed to black in the late 1980's. The separate sizes were intended to be used on different garments when needed. The large ones worked better with the green dress shirt while the small ones were often used on the black pullover, because the shoulder loops on the sweater were fixed with Velcro tabs and the large shoulder marks would interfere with the Velcro. Soldiers with smaller uniform proportions also used the shorter shoulder marks. As Omar Bradley died in 1981, he didn't live long enough to require the new black shoulder marks. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia....(United_States) reports that in the 1990's there was an initiative to promote the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to five-star rank that would necessitate the creation of modern General-of-the-Army shoulder marks. As late as 2011, Vets For Freedom proposed in an opinion piece in the Wall street Journal that General Petraeus be awarded 5-star rank for his service during the War On Terror.

Edited May 18, 2012 by dmiller8

[SkyPilot594]

Can you share where these where purchased from?

[achern]

These were purchased independently of each other from two different collectors in the USA several years apart.

[Paul R]

These are some excellent insignia. I would almost to go as far as saying one of a kind, for collecting purposes. Congrats on finding them.

[DRL]

I have seen the US Army uniform regulations for the soft shoulder boards. They are worn on the epaulets of the shirt worn under the uniform blouse. They come in two sizes for male and female. The left hand one is worn by a male officer with his dress blue uniform. The one on the right is worn by a female officer with her dress green uniform. The dress green uniform is no longer a part of the US Army. The dress blue uniform has been adapted as both a service uniform and a dress uniform.

[Doc]

Still weird, since there has never been a female 5-star general.  Can't imagine why these would have been made for the greens....