Uniforms

There are a number of different kinds of uniforms that are worn for military service, they typcially are divided into

A) Formal/Mess Dress -- A tuxedo like uniform which often includes gold braid and miniature badges and medals.

B) Dress Uniforms -- these can include ceremonial uniforms like the army's dress blues (which are somewhat reminiscent of what most of the public would think of as civil war uniforms), or the seemingly impractical dress whites, to the more standard Class A greenof the army, or blue of the air force, or the blacks of the navy.

C) Class B Type -- often consisting of dress pants or a skirt, and a long or short sleeve shirt (with or without tie or neck tab).  In most cases these are simply dress uniforms without the jackets.  The exception being navy khaki uniforms, and verious uniforms worn by their sailors.  These uniforms may be worn with or without ribbons, but as a roll, long sleeve shirts are worn with a tie or neck tab.  In Stargate: SG1 the gate control personel and Dr. Fraiser are most often in this uniform.

D) Utilities -- these are generally camoflage BDUs (battle dress utilities), which come in woodland camoflage, desert camoflage, or the new Marine Corps digital varient.  This class of uniform also includes naval dungeries, and flight suits.  The services generally discourage the wearing of flight suits when not involved in flight operations.  In Stargate: SG1 the SGC security personel are most often seen in woodland camoflage BDUs, and the SGC teams seem to have adopted olive drab, blue, and black versions for field use, as well as the standard woodland and desert utilities.  SGC personel remove the patches from their uniforms before going off base on earth.

Medals and Ribbons

    Medals and their ribbons are the most tangable signal of a soldiers success, and as such often function as a resume on the wearers chest.  They are worn on the users left side (serving the function of the shield side, similarly to police officers).  They have a specific order of precidence, with the most important at the on the top and to the users right, with the least important on the users left and buttom.

Foreign medals awarded (on most cases either by the Republic of Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Nations, or NATO) are always placed at the buttom of the precidence.  Training and non-combat service ribbons and medals follow, and than campaign ribbons designating service in conflicts such as Vietnam, the Gulf war, or the War on Terrorism.  These are sometimes called "I was there" medals, because they are awarded to everyone who served in a particular theatre of conflict, either in combat or support.  Awards for merit and valor often follow.

Soldiers are not required to wear all the medals they are awarded, or any at all.  Over a certain amount in fact, they must chose which ones to wear, and which ones not to wear, as only generals are allowed to exceed a certain number of rows (usually five rows of three ribbons).  Each service has it's own set of ribbons and medals given out for seemingly no particular reason (ranging from the air force's Training Ribbon simply for graduating, to the ubiquadious Good Conduct Medal, to the National Defense Service Medal, which has been in effect nearly continuiously since the 1980s).  In Stargate: SG1 both Jacob Carter and Samantha Carter do not seem to wear all the medals awarded to them, while Jack O'Neill seems to regularly violate the regulations on the number of them he can wear.

Specialist Badges

Each service has badges which designate an officer or enlistedmen's proficiency in particular areas.  These can be anything from pilot's wings, to submariner's dolphins, to marksmanship badges for the army and marines.  In most cases there is a limit of how many of these badges may be worn depending on the service.  As a general rule, in the army officers do no wear marksmenship designations even if they have earned them.

Patches

Unit patches often give a clue to the type of service a soldier has done.  Air force personel often wear squadron or command patches on BDU pockets or flight suits, while the army wears the current unit on the left shoulder, and the patch of a unit that the officer or NCO served in a combat zone with on the other.  Some senior officers or enlisted qualify to wear a number of different patches on their right shoulder, and which they chose to wear often indicates something about the pride of service.

"Other Shinny Bits"

There are other designations found on uniforms...

"Scrambled Eggs" or "Farts and Darts":  The oak leaves (army, navy, and marine) or thunder clouds and lightening (air force) on the bills of field grade officers hats (flag officers get even more).

Cuff and seem stripes:  Army and air force officers have a black stripe down the side of their dress pants, and on the cuffs of their uniform jackts.  Generals have one twice as wide as other officers.

Service Stripes:  In the navy and marine corps, enlistedmen wear stripes showing intervals of good service on their lower sleeves.