The use of a design as a symbol of a warrior or a group of warriors reaches back into prehistory. The United States Army has used various types of insignia on uniforms. Some basic types of these are:
Insignia of Grade (Rank)
Insignia of Branch of Service
|Enlisted Men's Service Cap Insignia||Lieutenant Colonel's Insignia||Artillery Officer's Insignia|
Insignia of Special Qualification
Insignia of Unit
|Bomb Disposal Insignia||115th Infantry Regiment Distinctive Insignia|
Some insignia combine several of these functions into one. Shoulder sleeve insignia generally serve as unit insignia. Unlike grade insignia, most of which have existed continually over many years; unit insignia have a fairly short history of use. The size of the Army expands during war and contracts during peace. This causes units to be created and discontinued. Army Corps and Division insignia where used during the Civil War, Spanish-American War and the First World War. On each occasion they were recreated without any great effort to reuse the designs of the prior conflict. Modern shoulder sleeve insignia were originally worn during the First World War and many designs remained in use during the inter-war period. With the Second World War a large number of new designs were introduced and will be covered in this web site.