execute orders on their own initiative and judgment.

c. Recommendations of noncommissioned officers relative to troop welfare in terms of assignment, reassignment, promotion, privileges, discipline, training, and supply should be sought in order to emphasize the responsibilities of the noncommissioned officer and develop the competency to discharge these responsibilities.

d. Noncommissioned officers will be employed as training instructors to the maximum practicable degree. e. The correcting and disciplining of noncommissioned officers will be conducted in such a manner as to protect them from degrading embarrassment in the presence of their subordinate.

f. Every noncommissioned officer will be indoctrinated with the importance and responsibility of his rank and position within the command structure of the Army.

g. The successful implementation of this policy is dependent on the extent of leadership exercised by commanders at all echelons of command. Therefore, commanders and their staffs are charged specifically with the responsibility for the development and maintenance of a leadership program which will insure an equitable delegation of authority and responsibility to the noncommissioned officer by his superiors, both officer and enlisted.

Section VII

Prerogatives and Privileges

27. Prerogatives.-a. Noncommissioned officers will be used only in supervisory roles on fatigue duty, and only as noncommissioned officers of the guard on guard duty.

b. Specialists in grades E-7 and E-6 will be exempt from guard and fatigue duty, except in unusual circumstances when their services are required for the proper execution of these duties. In these cases, specialists in grades E-7 and E-6 will be used only in supervisory roles.

28. Privileges. a. Noncommissioned officers will be granted such privileges as the organization and installation commanders are capable of granting and

consider proper to enhance the prestige of noncommissioned officers.

b. Specialists in grades E-6 and E-7 will be granted the same privileges as the noncommissioned officers in the organization and installation.

c. Other enlisted personnel may be granted such privileges as the organization and installation commanders consider proper commensurate with their grade. [AG 221 (18 Jun 54) G1]

By order of the Secretary of the Army:

M. B. RIDGWAY,
General, United States Army,
Chief of Staff.

Extract from Message, HQ, Department of the Army, Washington, 28 May 1985, Subject: Elimination of Specialist Ranks.

1. As a result of MACOM Commanders' review of the issue of whether we should have both specialists and noncommissioned officer ranks, the Chief of Staff, Army, has decided that specialist five and specialist six ranks will be eliminated. The specialist four rank will be retained and decisions on whether soldiers in grade E4 are specialists or corporals will continue to be made by commanders in the field based on standards of grade authorizations in AR 611-201. Additionally commanders may laterally appoint specialists four who are serving in SGT positions to corporal in accordance with para 2-43, AR 600-200.

2. Effective date for elimination of SP5 and SP6 is 1 October 1985. In the meantime promotion to E5 and E6 will continue to be made to the appropriate ranks indicated in AR 611-201 as in the past.

3. Implementation instructions for lateral appointment of SP5 and SP6 to SGT and SSG on 1 October 1985 will be announced at a later date in a message to commanders. Affected soldiers will be informed that the cost of changing insignia will be borne by the Army.

4. Request widest dissemination of this information.

Since 1775 Army NCOs have been set apart from the rest of the soldiers by distinctive insignia of rank. Those insignia have evolved over the years, from a variety of shapes, styles, and colors to today's chevrons. Sometimes changes in uniform style and colors dictated changes in the style and color of chevrons. The history of these insignia is complex and often confusing. In some cases no official records survive to document the use of certain official insignia. Many times the vagueness of official records resulted in conflicting interpretations by individual NCOs, leading to a variety in the same official rank insignia. In still other cases, noncommissioned officers wore unauthorized rank insignia, totally lacking in documentation.

At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Army was not consistently uniformed, and the problem of distinguishing rank was often difficult. To solve this problem, General Washington in July 1775 ordered designations for rank and grade for officers and noncommissioned officers. All sergeants were to be distinguished by a strip of red cloth sewn on the right shoulder; corporals, by one of green.

Washington later authorized sergeants to wear two silk epaulettes, and corporals, one worsted epaulette on the right shoulder. White epaulettes designated infantry NCOS; yellow, the artillery; and blue, the cavalry. The colors of the artillery and infantry epaulettes remained the same until 1798 and 1821 respectively. But there was a change in the type of epaulette worn by the various grades of NCOs at the time of the first small augmentation of the post-Revolutionary War Army in early 1787. Then the sergeant majors, quartermaster sergeants, and the drum and fife majors were to wear two silk and metal epaulettes; the sergeants, two worsted; and corporals, one worsted epaulette. Those of the projected cavalry and rifle units, which were not organized until four years later, were to be white. During the quasi-war with France in 1779, red epaulettes were prescribed for all Army NCOs. This break with tradition was protested,

and only the infantry wore red until 1808, the artillery managing to keep yellow epaulettes. With the raising of five new infantry regiments in 1808, all infantry NCOs again wore white epaulettes as did the newly organized dragoons. A company of bombardiers, sappers, and miners (engineer enlisted men) was organized during the War of 1812, and their NCOS wore the same yellow epaulettes as the artillery.

When regulations in 1821 directed the wearing of uniforms with cloth wings, another way had to be found to distinguish rank. A cloth stripe, or chevron, was adopted for officers and NCOs for wear on the arm of the uniform, point up. Colors identified the two arms: yellow for artillery and white for infantry (then armed with muskets). When the use of wings was discontinued in 1832, epaulettes and cuff slashflaps replaced chev

rons.

One year later, Congress authorized a regiment of dragoons with a distinctive uniform. Because the dragoon uniforms used metal shoulder scales to protect against saber cuts, yellow chevrons, with points down, were authorized to distinguish noncommissioned officer rank. It is known that at about the same time some infantry NCOs wore white chevrons on their uniforms, although they are not mentioned in regulations until much later. In 1845 one battery of horse artillery was issued dragoon-type uniforms, with NCOs wearing red chevrons.

During the Mexican War, chevrons with points up were authorized for all branches for wear on fatigue uniforms. The color of the chevrons continued to identify the branch. In 1851 chevrons were once again changed to points down. By 1872 there were eleven grades-seven with distinctive chevrons. As the Army. grew in specialization many new ranks were established. In 1902, when the Army retained twenty distinctive NCO chevrons, the insignia were reversed to the point-up position again.

With the authorization of new specialist grades, the

number of new distinctive chevrons increased dramatically. During World War I temporary branches of service were established, and new chevrons were authorized for each pay grade in the new system, until there were over a hundred different distinctive chevrons, including ones for the Tank Corps, Aviation Service, and two different transportation services, among others. The cost and confusion became too much, and in 1920 Congress ended the practice of using the chevron to show a specific job or position among enlisted men. All enlisted ranks were consolidated into seven pay grades, five of which were noncommissioned officers.

During World War II the Army differentiated between technical and combat grades, although the three technician grades adopted were dropped in the postwar years.

To save material, the War Department introduced a smaller, two-inch-wide chevron in 1948. With the smaller size came changes in color to distinguish between combat (blue on a gold background) and noncombat (gold on blue background) insignia. Another major change in 1948 was the substitution of the staff sergeant's three bars and a rocker for the three stripe chevron worn by sergeants ever since 1833.

At the beginning of the Korean War the Army went back to large chevrons, this time olive drab on a dark blue background. Once again, seven pay grades were authorized, although the rank titles corresponding to the pay grades changed. In 1955 the Army decided to distinguish between its combat leaders and soldiers with

special skills, splitting the top four enlisted grades into noncommissioned officers and specialists. Specialists were again authorized distinctive insignia.

In June 1958 the Army adopted the basic chevron system in use today. Seven pay grades were expanded to nine. One new chevron was introduced-the three stripes with three rockers and a star for sergeant major and one chevron was revived-the simple three stripes denoting sergeant. The addition of the threestripe sergeant bumped each chevron up one grade with the result that the ranks of sergeant, staff sergeant, and sergeant, first class, wore one rocker less. To prevent a morale problem, the Army allowed personnel in those grades to continue to wear their old chevrons until promoted or demoted, when the proper chevron would be worn.

This policy continued until 1968, when all personnel were required to wear the current appropriate chevron for their grade. In 1958 the Army also adopted larger specialist's chevrons, reserving the smaller versions for female personnel.

The following plates illustrate an artist's rendition of selected NCO and specialist rank insignia used from 1775 to the present. Not all rank insignia used are shown. Metal pin-on insignia, authorized by the Department of the Army in 1967, have also been excluded. Dates of individual rank insignia refer to a point in time when a particular design was used, not necessarily to the color schemes shown.