Paragraph 21-2a of the January 2021 edition of Department of the Army Pamphlet 670-1 authorizes all Officers—Warrant, Junior, Mid-Grade, and Flag—to wear embroidered rank insignia in the place of nonsubdued metal (pin-on) insignia on the sleeves of the jackets worn with the mess and evening mess uniforms.
Use the self-explanatory selection boxes to the right to select the insignia appropriate for your formal uniform needs. Because of the relatively small size of the insignia, Sew-On Insignia will typically require a tailor or professional seamstress or sewer to ensure proper placement and optimal appearance. Clutch back insignia are easily attached and removed, making them the recommended choice if there’s any likelihood the wearer might wish to wear branch insignia with either the Blue Mess or White Mess uniforms. (Wearing branch insignia changes where rank insignia is to be worn—refer to the sections on "Jacket Sleeve Ornamentation" for the male and female versions of these uniforms for guidance.)
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When the United States Army was founded in 1775, the only General Officer ranks were Brigadier and Major. As the likelihood of war with France escalated in 1798, President John Adams commissioned his predecessor George Washington as our nation’s first Lieutenant General and Commander-in-Chief of Armies that were expected to be raised. Thankfully for the young nation, the winds of war subsided, and Washington never exercised operational authority while holding the three-star rank of Lieutenant General.
Several decades would pass before another officer would achieve three-star General Officer rank, but Winfield Scott’s promotion to Lieutenant General nearly sixty years later was tarnished somewhat by the fact it was a brevet rank (this despite the fact that brevet promotions required the same advice and consent of the Senate as a standard officer commissioning). Ulysses S. Grant was the Army’s first non-brevet Lieutenant General, receiving his commission in early 1864.
More Army Lieutenant General Insignias