New Britain herald., 1917-09-01
LESSON NO IS. ARMY INSIGNIA.

ARMY INSIGNIA.
 Preceding lessons: 1. Your Post
 of Honor. 2. Making Good As Sol
 dier. 8. Nine soldierly Qualities.
 4. Getting Ready for Camp. 5.
 First Days in Camp. 6. Cleanliness
 in Camp. 7. Your Health. s.
 Marching and Care of Feet. g.
 Your Equipment and Arms. TO- Re-
 creation in Camp. il. Playing the
 Game. 12. Team Work in the Ar
 my. 13 Grouping Men into Teams.
 IA. The Team Leaders. IS. Fight
 ing Arms of the Service. 16. Staff
 Branches of the Service, I. IT. Staff
 Branches of the Service, II.)
 The uniform of the United States Army stands for democracy It is al- most the same for all ranks from pri- vate to commanding general-so much so, in fact, that it Is often dif1- cult to recognize mans place in the service at first glance. But closer view will tell the whole story to any experienced observer
 Insignia Is the term used to in- clude all badges. buttons, braids, hat cords and other devices which indi- cates these three things:
 l. The rank of each officer or sol dier.
 2. His branch of the service or his special duties.
 8. His personal experience or rec ord.
 An ordinary private's uniform car ries no insignia of rank. When a man becomes first-class private, however, in the Engineer Corps, Hospital Corps, Ordnance Department, Quartermazs- ter Corps or Signal Corps, he Is en- titled to wear on the sleeves of his coat and shirt the design of the de- partment to which he belongs.
 A lance corporal wears on his sleeve an inverted v-shaped bar A corporal has two bars, and a sergeant three bars. Below the sergeant's three w. shaped (inverted) bars may appear a number of additional marks, ind1cat- ing his duties. For example, a first sergeant, has a diamond-shaped mark; The stable sergeant has a device rep resenting a horses head; the color sergeant has star; the battalion ouartermaster sergeant has three hor- izontal bars; the chief trupeter has one bar and a device representing bugle; and so on. All the cloth de- signs, such as those just described, which are sewn on the sleeves, are known as "chevrons". Insignia of Rank. Above the non-commissioned off, cers, rank is shown by various insig- mia on the shoulder loops of coats, on the sleeves of coats and overcoats, on the collars of shirts and by hat cords. The most important are those made of metal and sewn on shoulder loops and shirt collars. A major general has two silver stars a brigadier general. one silver star; colonel, silver eagle; lieutenant colonel, silver oak leaf; a major, a gold oak leaf; g. captain, two silver bars; and a first lieutenant, one silver bar. A second lieutenant has no shoulder insignia. You can readily tell the rank of any officer by glancing at these metal ln- signia.
 It Is often quite necessary, how ever, to reconize that some one at a little distance Is a commissioned of- ficer in order that you may treat him with the courtesy due to all officers; in this case you look for the marks in- dicating that a man holds commis- sion without waiting to observe his exact rank. Until recently comnais- stoned officers customarily wore !eath- CT leggings, while all enlisted men wore canvas leggings. However. leather leggings may now be worn by mounted men, The hat cord is anoth- CT mark of rank which is easily ob- served: the hat cords of generals are gold: those of other officers are ct gold and black. Another mark of an officer is a band of brown braid about 3 inches from the end of the coat sleeve. Officers of the General Staff Corps wear black braid instead Of brown On overcoats the braid Is sewn on in loops except that of gen. eral officers, who wear two black bands of braid.
 Every branch of the service has it's special color which appears on the hat cords of enlisted men, on the chevrons of on-comm1ssioned off, cers and in many other places. These colors are:
 Infantry, light blue.
 Cavalry, yellow.
 Artillery, scarlet
 Adjutant generals inspector sener- als, and judge advocate generafs de- departments, dark blue.
 Engineer Corps, scarlet intertwined with white.
 Signal Corps, orange intertwined with white.
 Medical Department, maroon.
 Quartermaster Corps, buff.
 Ordnance Department, black inter- twined with sea arlet.
 By remembering these colors you will often be able easily to recognize men and troops. Tn addition to these colors, every branch of the service has its own device with all of which will soon become familiar.
 Regimental Insignia.
 The number of the regiment to which each man belongs is on the col lar of his ccat. All regimental num- bers will run in three different series, showing whether each regiment was