What's the story with the Marksmans Badge

[trellheim]

Last pub rumour was some one was doing the All Army one for the DPM.

What's the story with the normal (green) one . No.1's only as I understand it. Still the case ?

[Groundhog]

Yes. The only flash that goes on DPMs is the National Flash that they come with.

[trellheim]

Some DPMs don't come with the flag.

[Erwin]

Old pattern issue or first issue if you wish,didn't have the National Flash!

[old rec]

Dont know about the Marksman badge, but the Parachute Wings, UN flash and Overseas large Irish flag are the only badges allowed on the DPM shirt.

Are there any others??

[Bailer]

Coloured Flashes are worn on overseas to identify us with other countries. (and stop the Yanks shooting at us :D) Strangely enough the small tricolor is replaced by the older overseas flash when abroad.

Now Domestically,

The PDF has been re-orged. there are a lot of new small units who
1. Don't have a unit Badge yet and
2. is it economic for a unit with maybe 15-20 personnel to produce badges?

Ask Boomer or Frank it aint cheap unless you get a bulk order and for a unit like Kilbride TIS, with about 5 permanent members this is a bit stupid. Unless they stockpile them for the next 50 years!! by which time they will probably be disbanded.

IF you think about it in the old days, you had badges on Jumper, No.1's Tunic. Working dress jacket, Working dress Brassards, No1's Brassards, Great coat.

Thats 6 copies of 1 brigade Flash alone.(not counting Unit and RM flashes) It's roughly 5 Euro to produce a badge (in current prices) so you can Imagine,
bde badges x 6 x 11,500 = 69,000 badges x €5 = €345,000
It's Money that can be better spent on other Uniform and equipment.

I'm all for retaining the Badges and unit Identity, but with the re-org coming up (or apparently happening) All RDF units will be reformed, there will be new RDF Bde's and Unit badges. Perhaps when the RDF is reformed we will have badges and subdued badges introduced I'd like to see it but cost wise it isn't promising.

(The Subdued All Army Marksman Badge was Made by A CS in the 7Bn and he was wearing it last Saturday, as he said himself he worked damn hard to earn it (5 times) and wasn't going to give up now.!!

[The Joker]

Medics are allowed to wear the red cross also...

[mutter nutter]

Well we should count ourselves lucky we're not yanks. They wear the unit flashes from every unit they've been in, in the army,It's ridiculous, a lot of soldiers left arms on their dpms are covered in them even in combat and they've only recently dulled the colours down they used to be very vivid:-patriot:

[DeV]

Is the point of the dpm uniform not camoflage and concealment? So whats the point in putting a load of badges on it?

Name badge & rank insignia are useful as is the tricolour for use overseas and in border areas etc, the medics are susposed to wear an approved armband (under the Geneva Convention).

In the future, should an "enemy" either overseas or domestic come across a uniform with badges, they can tell the unit qualifications etc of the wearer (very useful for intelligence purposes).

Keep the unit flash, bde flash, marksmans badge, other special qualifications for SD No1.

I'm all for awarding badges for special qualifications that required special effort.

[Punctuation and capital letters courtesy of MOD]

[Erwin]

Just a small point there Bailer - on overseas tours if a soldiers DPM shirt is of the type where it does not have a National Flash on it then the old type or new one if possible is tailored to it.On shirts which come from the stores with the small flash on it,this is not substituted with the larger one!Just a small point

[The Joker]

Well my reckoning is that if the enemy is close enough that they can see your tri-colour, then they are going to see you anyway, so whats the difference?

[Erwin]

What enemy would that be ?

[Docman]

Originally posted by mutter nutter
Well we should count ourselves lucky we're not yanks. They wear the unit flashes from every unit they've been in, in the army,It's ridiculous, a lot of soldiers left arms on their dpms are covered in them even in combat and they've only recently dulled the colours down they used to be very vivid:-patriot:

A Few corrections....

(These rules apply to BDU's(DPM's))

US Soldiers wear their unit flash on their left shoulder, and only the unit that they are currently with. If doing a cse like OCS or boot, they transfer to that unit for the duration of the cse and wear that units flash only.

Troops with combat experience wear on their right shoulder, the unit flash of the unit that they were with when they saw combat.

The US flag is worn on the right shoulder in reverse (The flag pole is in assumed to be to the front of the man)

Some decorations are worn. CIB, Para wings etc. Name above right pocket and US ARMY above left.

Rank markings are worn on the collar

ALL flashes are subdued. There has been a problem recently where troops in desert BDU's have had to wear green flashes but that has been rectified.

Some units wear their unit flash on their helmet. This is a tradition that was first used in WWII and is usually at the discretion of the divisional commander.

[Docman]

and.....

The white tape some of them wear shows up extremely bright on night vision equipment. Allows for recognition of friendlys.

[Groundhog]

(The Subdued All Army Marksman Badge was Made by A CS in the 7Bn and he was wearing it last Saturday, as he said himself he worked damn hard to earn it (5 times) and wasn't going to give up now.!!

So damn the dress regulations then and lets all wear what we like.