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As a former Sergeant of Marines who has had the honor to serve with many fine men and women of each of the branches of our military (MEPS Little Rock), I'd like to throw my 2 cent's worth into this discussion.

Is he a PFC, Sergeant, or Captain? In my opinion, he is a hard-charging Private First Class. Here are my supporting facts:

(a) No doubt, he is clearly a member of the U. S. Army as evidenced by the branch of service nametape above his left hand breast pocket and the patch of the 82nd Airborne on his left shoulder;

(b) If he were an officer - specifically, a Captain - in the U. S. Army, his rank would not be on his left collar, but on his right collar of his BDUs (cammies for us Jarheads). If my failing memory serves (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong), Army officers below General grade (Company & Field grade) wear their branch (Armor, Infantry, MI, Aviation, Cavalry, etc) insignia on the left collar of their BDUs. They do not wear rank insignia on both collars. Whatever is on his left collar does not resemble any branch insignia of the Army that I can readily see (ref: http://www.1800nametape.com/a-off-chart.gif)

(c) So, if he is not a Captain (for he clearly is much too young to be a General grade - or even Field grade - officer), he must be either a PFC or Sergeant.

(d) There is clearly a single chevron up and a single rocker down on the insignia. This is without a doubt a PFC insignia.

But, then again I may be wrong. I welcome and appreciate all comments or corrections.

Good Job, and Well Done, Marine. Let's look at your analysis:

Your (a) is good;

Your (b) is dead on target, as is your memory;

Your (c) I might quibble over; I have known and been aquainted with several baby-faced field grades in my time. If this were an officer, I'd have to hedge the bet at company-grade: CPT, but not much higher.

Your (d) is the debate point. I honestly could not discern a rank or branch insignia with the image quality I had. If I had a "Guess Free" card, what you see as the chevron points, could also be the points of a 5-pointed star: the insignia of General Staff. That would be logical, given my take that it's a division HQ setting for background.

Taken as a package, your analysis was pretty dang good!