Posted on 01/31/2015 8:34:17 PM PST by Silly
Dear FReepers:
Im writing a short work which contains a tangential reference to a character in Stripes (1981), Morgan, the Army recruiter who interviews John (Bill Murray) and Russell (Harold Ramis).
Can you kindly help me identify the recruiters rank, etc., from this screen shot? (See comment #1 for a link to the the full scene.)
(BTW, this information is not in IMDbs Trivia and Goofs pages I checked.)
Also, as a side question for you real military experts (not essential to the piece), can you tell me whether the rank that our FReepers identify from Morgan's movie uniform is consistent with that of real-life recruiters from that era (early 80s)? Just curious about it. I know movies do not always research things perfectly, especially in non-so-serious films.
Thanks for your help! If my piece gets published, Ill post a link here.
Silly
Everyone who noticed he has a Vietnam era Combat Infantry Badge, and his unit in Vietnam was the 101st Airborne Division is also correct.
The Purple Heart and Meritorious Unit Commendation references are also correct.
....But the one thing that everyone seems to miss about this image is THE HAIR!!!
I have always, always, always believed that Soldiers should BE ALLOWED to have trimmed hair in the Army. The NCO in the "Stripes" photo has a professional and trim haircut, and doesn't look like Mr. Potato Head or Bert/Ernie.
One of the nuisances with today's Army is Soldiers shave their heads entirely bald, and look like Mr. Clean or some absurd nonsense.
They look ridiculous like this, especially in civilian clothing (and for even better reason, they are easily identifiable in terms of OPSEC):
One of the things I really like about the Cold War era Army is that Soldiers were allowed to maintain short, trimmed haircuts and look good with it while in uniform.
Maybe they didn’t need to.
Ah, you should be… after all, the Air Force is only the Army Air Corps with an overinflated ego.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist the ribbing; if it makes you feel better, I call my marine brother a Squid-borne Ranger
.)
Yep, the bowed stripes "hanging" from the chevrons are the rockers.
The word chevron
is [IIRC] from a French word used to indicate the roofing-parts [essentially the A part of the A-frame].
The Sergeant stripes [worldwide] are commonly V-, rather than A-shaped, though.
There's a table of US Militart enlisted ranks here.
Nothing in the reg prevents a clean trim haircut.
High and tights are far from required.
Unless you are airborne there’s a lot of room for personal choice, as long as it meets reg.
What the often myopic Bic-heads out there fail to understand is that Soldiers look better this way:
While it may be possibly understandable for certain units to apply the Bic-head standard, it is not necessary for the Army at large. It is simply a stupid and tasteless style, and those in leadership positions should be banned from intimidating Soldiers to conform to this ridiculous crap:
The Air Force likes to wear their stripes upside-down for some reason
Enjoyed your pieces at the link you provided. My Dad was a journalist/Editor, at a Southern CA newspaper, and he wrote daily columns for many years. He loved including the day to day slices of life you favor.
Reading about NYC is interesting to me as I’ve never been there. Good luck with your “Stripes” project. Never saw the movie, but now may take a look at it.
Thank you, so glad you clicked on the link! It is a pleasure to write and a thrill to get published.
I know he was a Marine, but he was also a recruiter in at least one episode.
IIRC, they made his uniform accurate, complete with Korean combat insignia.
They didn't make him a hokey TV uniform.
Ha, I’ve seen it written it was supposedly forbidden to accurately portray a man in military uniform on camera, so a better pot-stirring question would have been to ask what was WRONG with the uniform in the pic in question. Just funnin’ ya... ;)
I thought it was one of the funniest scenes ever when she was asking about ‘the condos’ that she was promised.
Both of those movies were rather irreverent regarding Army life, but I enjoyed them at the time when they came out because I had only been discharged a few months myself.
Some of the things presented were quite fantastic and outrageously bogus but that was what made them funny to me anyhow.
First Sergeant?
Staff is three up, no rocker.
Staff Sergeant. I can only make out 1 rocker.
I was wrong...mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!
No,the right sleeve patch designates the unit you served in in a foreign assignment.
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