Some of my troops were asking about shoulder cords and who is authorised to wear them. I know from the top of my head that Infantry and then people at emassy wear them but i know i have seen them in MCSS and was wondering what other personal are authorised the shoulder cords. 670-1 talks about infantry and the Aginlli(sp) cords bujt i was unble to find any others.

Qualified Infantrymen, assigned to Infantry units, wear blue cords around their right shoulders.

Aiguillettes (complex gold color cord devices) are worn around left shoulders by attaches, aides to the President, & aides to the highest Armed Forces civilian officials.

You've come to the right place. No doubt others will have more thorough answers to your question.

Shoulder Cords, Aguillettes, and Fouragerres...easy to lump under one category.

Infantry wear the Shoulder Cord when assigned to Infantry units in an Infantry MOS/branch (and some special duties).

Aguilletes are for military aides and attaches to general officers and civilian officials.

Fouragerres are unit awards, only worn when assigned to that unit now. The last ones were awarded around WWII and all those guys who could have worn them permanently are long retired. Most are Belgian, Dutch, and French, awarded to units who participated in the liberation of Europe.

Gbesaw returns......

Welcome back Greg, is Iraq still hot and sandy?

Great information gbesaw! When 9th Infantry Division returned home in the 1970s, Republic of Vietnam awarded the whole Division a shoulder cord. I'm assuming those cords were worn only by Soldiers in the Division at that time. Correct? Thanks.

quote:

Welcome back Greg, is Iraq still hot and sandy?

Is that where he's been?

??? I got back from the last Iraq tour in Sep '06...I've only been posting off and on the last few weeks, not so much as usual. At Ft. Lee for my WO Advanced Course so I'm only on the boards occasionally.

I did do a couple of weeks in June to check out my "new home" for next year, should actually be a nice relaxing deployment...$20/hour massage, huge gym in a clamshell tent that's open to the outside in nice weather, about half a dozen good DFAC's, and it's somewhere I haven't been yet...either gonna come back ripped up and strong, or fat and weak

Nice to be missed though, thanks.

quote:

When 9th Infantry Division returned home in the 1970s, Republic of Vietnam awarded the whole Division a shoulder cord. I'm assuming those cords were worn only by Soldiers in the Division at that time. Correct?

Was it a yellow cord with red spots, One big cord with 2 smaller ones.??

I seem to remember something like that, replaced by the CoG Unit Citation.

I believe that was 9th ID only, that didn't last long.

Have a Vietnamese Cross Of Gallantry Fouragerre in my collection of VRN awards and Decorations. It was awarded to units that had received multiple GOG unit awards. This included foreign as well as Vietnamese units. After having been awarded to a few US Units, the regulations for wear of foreign unit citations were changed to prohibit the wear of multiple awards of foreign unit citations. So out the window went the yellow and red cord as well as the wear of multiple palms on an individual's Vietnmese unit citations.

This is a little known decoration and is a great bar bet.

Im in a new unit and we were talking at drill sunday. One of the guys asked about the Ordnance shoulder cord and how you get to wear it. We all are in the EMS (Electronics Maintenance Section) so all of our MOS's are ordnance. I was uncertain. Can you guys help me out so I can let him know next month? Thanks

No one but infantry can wear cords.

NO ONE.

quote:

Originally posted by Drakahn:
Im in a new unit and we were talking at drill sunday. One of the guys asked about the Ordnance shoulder cord and how you get to wear it. We all are in the EMS (Electronics Maintenance Section) so all of our MOS's are ordnance. I was uncertain. Can you guys help me out so I can let him know next month? Thanks

Easy answer: you don't get an Ordnance shoulder cord. Only Infantry is authorized branch specific cords.

I see, thats what I thought. He was asking because he saw them at Ranger Joe's.

Ah Ranger Joes. Shamelessly ripping joes off for twenty years.

Lol, i will have to tell him that, I stick with AAFES myself.

Wherever uniform items are bought, they must be within the regulation to wear them.

One of my drill sergeants in basic, a Combat Engineer, had a German weapons qualification cord or fouragerres(not real sure).
Not sure any details about it except he had to qualify with a lot of German weapons. I just wanted to throw that out there for yall...

Thats aSchutzenschnur

quote:

Originally posted by runfuret:
Thats aSchutzenschnur

Does anyone here have a schutzenschnur AND wear it with their blue cord? I got the schutzenschnur in Afghanistan (one of our First Sergeants did a favor for the German liason at Bagram, and they ran the course whenever he got enough bodies together to make it worth it), and was wondering if it looks alright when worn with the blue cord.