Home : Rank & Insignia :Formalized Ranks
The use of formalized ranks came into widespread use with the Roman legions (Roman legion: A division of from 3000 to 6000 men (including cavalry) in the Roman army) after the introduction of reforms by the consul (consul: A diplomat appointed by a government to protect its commercial interests and help its citizens in a foreign country) Gaius Marius (Gaius Marius: more facts about this subject) which were completed around 60 BC. In the new system a legion would be commanded by a legate (legate: A member of a legation) (legatus), typically a senator (senator: A member of a senate) given a three-year term. Immediately beneath the legate were six tribunes of the soldiers (tribuni militum), five of whom would be senior officers and one a nobleman who was headed for the Senate (Senate: Assembly possessing high legislative powers) . The fighting men in the legion were formed into ranks, rows of men who fought as a unit. In the new system these were divided into groups of ten cohort (cohort: A band of warriors (originally a unit of a Roman Legion)) s (cohors, pl. cohortes), each consisting of six centuries of 100 men. Each century was led by a centurion (centurion: (ancient Rome) the leader of 100 soldiers) (centurio, pl. centuriones). Additional centurions served as scribes and filled other duties. Centuries were further broken into ten contubernia, of eight soldiers each. Individual soldiers were referred to as soldiers (miles, pl. milites) or legionaries (legionarii). The U.S. military services still use many of the ranks they started with in 1775 at the start of our Revolutionary War. The leaders adopted the organization, regulations, and ranks of the British army and navy with just minor changes. This is not surprising because our Revolutionary Army was made up of colonial militia units that had been organized and drilled by British methods for many years. Most of the military experience of the soldiers and their officers, George Washington among them, had come from service in militia units fighting alongside British army units during the French and Indian War of 1754-1763. The British navy was the most successful in the world at that time. As a result the Continental Congress’ navy committee, headed by John Adams, who became President after Washington, copied it as they set up our Navy. They adopted some British regulations with hardly any change in the wording. Our first Marine Units also patterned themselves after British marines. Revolutionary Army rank insignia, however, did not follow the British patterns, but was similar to the insignia used by the French, our allies after 1779. After the war our Army often used the uniform styles and some insignia of the British as well as the French armies. During the latter part of the Nineteenth Century German army styles also influenced our Army’s dress. Our Navy used rank insignia and uniforms similar to the British navy’s during the Revolutionary War and afterwards. Marine rank insignia has usually been similar to the Army’s, especially after 1840. The Coast Guard dates from 1915 when Congress combined the Revenue Cutter Service, which started in 1790, with the U.S. Life Saving Service. During World War I Coast Guard ranks became the same as the Navy’s. The Air Force became a separate service in 1947. Formerly a part of the Army, its officers continued to use the same ranks and rank insignia as the Army. The basic names for members of the military profession go back several centuries. A Seaman’s occupation is on the sea and his name, from an Old English word that was pronounced see-man, means a person whose occupation is on the sea. A Sailor is a person professionally involved with navigation or sailing. His name, which comes from the Old English word saylor, means just that, a person professionally involved with naviagation. A Marine gets his name from the Latin word marinus, which means something pertaining to the sea. A Soldier is a person who serves in a military force for pay. His name comes from the Latin soldus, a contraction of another Latin word solidus, a Roman coin used for, among other things, paying military men. Private comes from the Latin word privus or perhaps privo that meant an individual person and later an individual without (deprived of) an office. That certainly describes a Private in our Army or Marine Corps. The term as a military rank seems to come from the Sixteenth Century when individuals had the privilege of enlisting or making private contracts to serve as private soldiers in military units. Before the Sixteenth Century many armies were simply feudal levies in which the feudal lords forced their serfs or subjects to serve. Airman is a recent word that means somebody involved with flying. The Air Force gave that title to the members of its four lowest enlisted ranks in 1952. Chevron is a French word meaning rafter or roof, which is what a chevron looks like; two straight lines meeting at an angle just as rafters do in a roof. It has been an honourable ordinarie in heraldry since at least the Twelfth Century. Ordinaries are simple straight line forms that seem to have originated in the wood or iron bars used to fasten together or strengthen portions of shields. Other ordinaries include the cross, the diagonal cross or ‘x’, the triangle, the ‘y’, and horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. The chevron was a basic part of the colorful and complicated science of heraldry. It appeared on the shields and coats-of-arms of knights, barons and kings. Chevrons were thus easily recognized symbols of honor. That might be why French soldiers started wearing cloth chevrons with the points up on their coat sleeves in 1777 as length of service and good conduct badges. Some British units also used them to show length of service. In 1803 the British began using chevrons with the points down as rank insignia. Sergeants wore three and Corporals two. Perhaps they wore them with the points down to avoid confusion with the earlier length of service chevrons worn with the points up. Some British units also used chevrons of gold lace as officer’s rank insignia. British and French soldiers who served in our Revolutionary War wore chevrons as did some American soldiers. In 1782 General George Washington ordered that enlisted men who had served for three years "with bravery, fidelity and good conduct" wear as a badge of honor "a narrow piece of white cloth, of angular form" on the left sleeve of the uniform coat. In 1817 Sylvanus Thayer, the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, used chevrons to show cadet rank. From there they spread to the rest of the Army and Marine Corps. From 1820 to 1830 Marine Captains wore three chevrons of gold lace with points down on each sleeve above the elbows of their dress uniforms. Lieutenants wore one or two gold lace chevrons depending on whether they were staff or command officers. Marine noncommissioned Officers started wearing cloth chevrons with the points up as rank insignia in 1836. Before this they had been wearing them as length of service badges, each indicating three years service. In 1859 they began wearing chevrons in about the same pattern they do today. Starting in 1820 Army company grade officers and Sergeants wore one chevron with the point up on each arm. The officers’ chevrons were of gold or silver lace, depending on the wearer’s branch of service. Captains wore their chevrons above the elbow while Lieutenants wore theirs below. Sergeant Majors and Quartermaster Sergeants wore worsted braid chevrons above the elbow while other Sergeants and Senior Musicians wore theirs below. Corporals wore one chevron on the right sleeve above the elbow. By 1833 the Army and Marine company grade officers had stopped wearing chevrons and returned to epaulettes as rank insignia. Sergeants of the Army dragoons then began wearing three chevrons with points down and Corporals two. All other NCOs wore cloth epaulettes to show their rank. From 1847 to 1851 some Army NCOs wore chevrons with the points up on their fatigue uniform jackets but still used cloth epaulettes on their dress uniforms. After 1851 all Army NCOs wore chevrons with points down until 1902 when the Army turned the points up and adopted the patterns used today, two chevrons for Corporals, three for Sergeants and combinations of arcs and other devices beneath the chevrons for higher grades of Sergeants. The stripes worn by Air Force members date from 1948. the basic design was one of several presented to 150 NCOs at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington D.C. in late 1947 or early 1948. Some 55 percent of the NCOs perferred that design so on March 9, 1948 General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, then the Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, accepted their choice and approved the design. Naturally, it took some time to obtain and distribute the new stripes so it could have been a year or more before all Air Force members got them. Whoever designed the stripes might have been trying to combine the shoulder patch worn by members of the Army air Forces during World War II and the insignia used on aircraft. The patch featured wings with a pierced star in the center while the aircraft insignia was a star with two bars. The stripes might be the bars from the aircraft insignia slanted gracefully upward to suggest wings. The silver grey color contrasts with the blue uniform and might suggest clouds against blue sky. Most enlisted service members wear chevrons or stripes to show their ranks. the exceptions are the lowest three grades of Navy and Coast Guard Seamen and the Army Specialists. the Seamen wear one, two or three diagonal stripes or "hashmarks" on their sleeves. These stripes first appeared on the cuffs of sailors’ jumpers in 1886. Petty Officers and Seamen First Class wore three stripes, Seamen Second Class two stripes and Seamen Third Class one stripe. Shortly after World War II the Navy moved the stripes to its Seamen’s upper arms, as did the Coast Guard. Army specialists wear an insignia that combines a spread eagle and, depending on the pay grade, arcs--sometimes called "bird umbrellas". The eagle and arcs are mounted on a patch that suggests inverted chevrons. The badge appeared in 1955 as part of an effort to differentiate between the Army’s technical or support specialists, who were not NCOs, and the NCO. Corporals often command squads in our Army and Marine Corps. that was also their job in the Fifteenth Century Italian armies. An important tactical formation was the squadra, headed by a reliable veteran called the capo de squadra or head of the square although some squadra members might have looked on their leader as the "squarehead". The title seems to have changed to caporale by the Sixteenth Century and meant the leader of a small body of soldiers. The French picked up the term in about the Sixteenth Century and pronounced it in various ways, one of them being corporal, which indicates a mixing with the Latin word corpus or French corps, both of which meant body. The British adopted corporal in the Seventeenth or Eighteenth Century and it has been a part of their army ever since. The British gave the Corporal his two stripes when they started using chevrons in 1803. The Sergeant started out as a servant, serviens in Latin. He became a fighting man probably for self preservation because combat in those days often amounted to cutting down everybody in reach, regardless of whether they were armed. He became an experienced warrior who might ride a horse, but was not wealth enough to afford all the equipment and retainers to qualify as a knight. As an experienced soldier he might be called upon to take charge of a group of serfs or other common people forced to serve in an army of feudal levies. The Sergeant would conduct what training he could to teach his charges to fight, lead them into battle and, most important, keep them from running away during a battle. Sergeant was not a rank, but an occupation. He might lead others, he might fight alone or as a member of a group of sergeants, or he might serve the lord of his village as a policeman or guard. The modern title "sergeant-at-arms" used by many clubs recalls armed Sergeants who kept order at meetings. The English borrowed the word "sergeant" from the French in about the Thirteenth Century. They spelled it several different ways and pronounced it both as SARgent and SERgeant. The latter was closer to the French pronounciation. The SARgeant pronouciation became the most popular, however, so that when the Nineteenth Century dictionary writers agreed that the word should be spelled "sergeant" they could not change the popular pronounciation. Thus, we say SARgeant while the French and others say SERgeant. Sergeant became a regular position and then a rank as army organizations evolved. It has been a key rank in British and European armies for several hundred years. When our Army and Marine Corps started in 1775 it was naturarl that both include Sergeants. The rank’s many duties and levels of responsibility have lead to several grades of Sergeant. The Air Force has six while the Army and Marines have five. The Petty Officer can trace his title back to the old French word petit meaning something small. Over the years the word also came to mean minor, secondary and subordinate. In medieval and later England just about every village had several "petite", "pety" or "petty" officials/officers who were subordinate to such major officials as the steward or sheriff. the petty officers were the assistants to the senior officials. the senior officers of the early British warships, such as the Boatswain, Gunner and carpenter, also had assistants or "mates". Since the early seamen knew petty officers in their home villages they used the term to describe the minor officials aboard their ships. A ship’s Captain or Master chose his own Petty Officers who served at his pleasure. At the end of a voyage or whenever the ship’s crew was paid off and released, the Petty Officers lost their positions an d titles. There were Petty Officers in the British navy in the Seventeenth Century and perhaps earlier, but the rank did not become official until 1808. Petty Officers were important members of our Navy right from its beginnings and were also appointed by their ship’s Captain. They did not have uniforms or rank insignia, and they usually held their appointments only while serving on the ship whose Captain had selected them. Petty Officers in our Navy got their first rank insignia in 1841 when they began wearing a sleeve device showing an eagle perched on an anchor. Some Petty Officers wore the device on their left arms while others wore it on their right. All wore the same device. Specialty or rating marks did not appear officially until 1866, but they seem to have been in use for several years previously. Regulations sometimes serve to give formal status to practices already well established. In 1885 the Navy recognized three classes of Petty Officers--first, second and third--and in the next year let them wear rank insignia of chevrons with the points down under a spread eagle and rating mark. The present Petty Officer insignia came about in 1894 when the Navy established the Chief Petty Officer rank and gave him the three chevrons with arc and eagle. The first, second and third class Petty Officers also began wearing the insignia they do today. Officers show their rank by wearing metal or embroidered insignia on their shoulders, collars, caps or sleeve cuffs. In addition, Navy and Coast Guard officers wear stripes of gold braid on their cuffs or shoulder marks, sometimes called shoulder boards. Air Force officers also wear shoulder boards on their semi formal uniforms. The insignia are fairly standard among the services and easy to recognize after a bit of instruction or study. It has not always been so. Over the years officers have shown their rank by such things as the number, size and pattern of buttons on their coats, sleeves or coattails; sashes worn across the chest or around the waist; the amount of gold, silver or other kinds of braid; cockades or plumes on hats; markings on saddle blankets; the cut and quality of uniform cloth; or by carrying a spontoon, a spearlike instrument that was both a weapon and a mark of authority. In the early years of our military services the rank devices differed so much among the various Army corps and Navy units that it was difficult for service members of one activity to recognize the ranks of another activity. Before the Twentieth Century epaulettes and shoulder straps were common devices to signal rank. Epaulettes, from epaule an old French word for shoulder, seem to have started out as cloth straps worn on the shoulders to help keep shoulder sashes and belts in position. another story has them beginning as pieces of armor to protect the shoulders. By the time of our Revolutionary War epaulettes worn by British and French officers had become elaborate affairs of gold or silver that started at the collar and ended at the point of the shoulder with heavy fringes of gold or silver wire. To some they looked like fancy hair brushes. They were also very expensive, being made of gold or silver, sometimes solid metal and other times plated. Epaulettes for Sergeants and other enlisted men were of cheaper metals or cloth. In our Army officers started wearing gold or silver epaulettes in 1780 during the Revolutionary War and continued to do so until 1872, mostly on their dress uniforms. Army generals wore epaulettes until early in the Twentieth century. Navy officers also started wearing epaulettes during the Revolutionary War and did not give them up for their full dress uniforms until just before World War II. Marine officers wore epaulettes on their special full dress uniforms until 1922. The embroidered rank insignia usually appeared on the epaulette strap or near the "crescent", the rounded portion over the end of the shoulder. For some ranks, such as Major or Second Lieutenant, the size of the epaulette or the size of the fringes were the main clues of rank since those officers did not wear insignia. Along with being expensive, epaulettes made pretty good targets so the Army switched to shoulder straps in 1831 for other than dress uniforms. The Navy had been using straps since 1830. the officers wore the straps across their shoulders at the sleeve seams of their coats. Usually the straps had raised edges of embroidered gold or silver with the rank insignia embroidered between the edges. Navy officers wore shoulder straps until 899 when they changed to their current shoulder marks. Army and Marine officers wore the straps until the first few years of this century when they changed to metal pin-on type insignia. They started wearing the metal insignia just before the end of the Nineteenth Century on their new khaki or olive drab uniforms but also wore the straps on some uniforms. Army officers still wear shoulder straps on their blue uniforms. Many also wear embroidered insignia. Navy officers started wearing stripes of gold lace on their sleeve cuffs in 1852 but in different patterns than today. Captains, for instance, had just three stripes. I will tell when each rank got its current number of stripes when I discuss that rank. The use of metal pin-on rank insignia by Navy officers started in 1941 when they wore the insignia on the collars of their khaki shirts.
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