Career Counselor Badge The Career Counselor Badge is a military badge of the United States Army and Navy which was first established in the early 1970s . The badge recognizes those enlisted personnel who have been selected as promotion and career advancement coordinators , and Retention NCO ' s in the Army . The Navy and Army are the only branches of service to bestow a Career Counselor Badge . Army . The Army Career Counselor Badge is authorized for wear by enlisted service members who hold the Military Occupational Specialty ( MOS ' s ) of “ 79S , 79T or 79V ” , that of Career Counselor . The badge is presented as an Army Identification Badge to all graduates of the nine week Army Career Counselor Course conducted at Ft Jackson , S . C . , who subsequently are assigned as Career Counselors or Reenlistment Advisors , in the case of the National Guard . After a twelve month probationary period , the Career Counselor Badge is authorized for permanent wear providing that service as a Career Counselor was satisfactory and free from disciplinary action or removal for cause . The badge is worn on the right side of the uniform . The Army Career Counselor Badge is retroactive to January 1972 and may be awarded for past service upon application from the service member . The badge may also be worn by officers , if they held an MOS as Career Counselor during enlisted service . The Army Career Counselor Badge was awarded to Soldier ' s upon completion of training for the Military Occupational Specialty of 00R with the Army ' s Rectuiting and Retention School located at Fort Benjammin Harrison , IN . Military Occupational Specialty 00R was a combined specialty consiting of Recruiters and Career Counselors , the badge awarded by the Commandant was determined by which training track of the occupational specialty the Soldier completed . In 1993 Military Occupational Specialty 00R was split to 79R for Recruiters , 79S for Active Duty Career Counselors , 79V for U . S . Army Reserve Career Counselors , and 79T for Army National Guard Career Counselors . Navy . The Navy Career Counselor Badge is a temporary insignia which is presented by local commands to those personnel , E - 5 or above , who have been assigned as the Command Career Counselor . Personnel assigned to such duties must have completed appropriate Navy schooling and hold a Navy Enlisted Classification ( NEC ) as a Career Counselor or be in the Navy Counselor ( NC ) rating . Personnel that are E - 5 may apply to enter the Navy Counselor ( Career ) rating once they are available to take First Class Petty Officer exam , but even Navy Counselors may only wear this badge when actually serving as a Command Career Counselor . The badge may also be worn by commanding officers and executive officers at the discretion of the commanding officer , and by officers designated full - time retention officers on the staffs of the Chief of Naval Operations , fleet commanders - in - chief , and type commanders . In actual practice some Commanding Officers have required all Lieutenant Commander s and / or department heads in a command to wear this badge in their capacity as counselors to junior officers , while other commands have required its wear by all officers serving as an Officer - in - Charge of a deployed detachment . The Navy Career Counselor Badge may only be worn while actually serving as a Career Counselor ( or in another authorized billet as noted above ) ; however , there have been cases where the award has been entered in service records as a permanent insignia . This is usually the case for Career Counselors of the larger or higher echelon Navy commands , where such permanent bestowal of the Career Counselor Badge was authorized by a senior officer O - 6 or above . The Navy Career Counselor Badge is typically worn either attached directly to a uniform or suspended on a leather backing from a pocket button . This second method is actually in violation of Navy uniform regulations ; however , a flexible view of uniform regulations is relatively common in certain Navy commands .