The Marine Corps introduced the current Lance Corporal rank insignia—a single chevron with a pair of butt-down M1 rifles centered below it—in 1958 as part of an overhaul of enlisted rank structure, a move necessitated by the addition of two new Staff Noncommissioned Officer grades (E-8 and E-9).
The Lance Corporal sew-on chevron is issued in men’s (large) and women’s (small) sizes and is worn on the Blue Dress and Service Uniform coats, as well as on the long- and short-sleeve khaki shirts. It is manufactured in three color schemes for the chevron (stripe) and background in order to accommodate wear on the different types of uniforms:
- Gold stripe on red background: Blue Dress coat
- Green stripe on red background: Service Uniform coat
- Green stripe on khaki background: Khaki shirts
Sew-on Lance Corporal rank insignia are oriented point up and are sewn onto both sleeves of coats and shirts using thread of the same color as the background material on the insignia. On coats and the long-sleeve shirt, they’re horizontally centered on the outside half of the sleeve and placed so that the top of the chevron is four inches from the shoulder seam. They are similarly oriented and centered on short-sleeve khaki shirts, but on men’s shirts they’re placed midway between the shoulder seam and the bottom of the sleeve; on women’s shirts, they’re centered between the shoulder seam and the peak of the cuff.