US Navy Admiral 1918.

[J.T. Broderick]

I was looking at some recent additions to the site and came across the US Navy pages for the 1913-1918 period. Nicely done. I have to mention the designs of the officer caps look a little familiar to me!

I don't know how in-depth the page needs to go, but I thought I'd mention one change that came along in late 1918 that is not often mentioned in the reference books. The blue service collar insignia were changed from this

adm_collar_1917.png (9.55 KiB) Viewed 4272 times

to this

adm_collar_1918.png (13.11 KiB) Viewed 4272 times

by Change No. 26 to the Uniform Regulations, dated Nov. 30 1918. Some officers wore their stars "upside down," as in this photo of William S. Benson, but the regulations specified one ray point up.

I would also mention the white shoulder straps with metal insignia listed here as "1913-1917" were authorized less than a year before the standard shoulder boards were brought back in July 1913. It is doubtful that they were ever widely worn.

Best regards,
Justin

[Medic_in_Uniform]

The collar insignia must almost meet at the back...!

Justin, quick question: did those service dress jackets ever have black cuff lace for flag officers or were they always gold lace...? I'm having a blonde moment and can't remember...!

I also keep finding illustrations that look surprisingly familiar to me popping up all over the web. Funny how that happens.

[J.T. Broderick]

The collar insignia must almost meet at the back...!

Indeed, as seen on CINCPAC Adm. Hugh Rodman:

adm_rodman.png (158.29 KiB) Viewed 4171 times

In photos it looks like some admirals cheated a little on the regulation spacing (1.25" between star centers) to avoid that.

Justin, quick question: did those service dress jackets ever have black cuff lace for flag officers or were they always gold lace...? I'm having a blonde moment and can't remember...!

Yes, for the first 20 years, 1877-1897, the stripes were black braid with no line star or colored distinction cloth. There is a page here that shows the main variations for USN officer sleeve stripes:

http://uniform-reference.net/insignia/u ... variations

I also keep finding illustrations that look surprisingly familiar to me popping up all over the web. Funny how that happens.

I'll bet you do! Does anyone ever give you credit or is it all "finders-keepers"?

Justin

[Medic_in_Uniform]

I don't recall being credited, except on the one or two occaisions that people have contacted me directly to request illustrations.

It's generally amusing rather than annoying but more than anything else it just serves to show how much (even in this rather meaningless and rarified niche interest if ours) something becomes "public property" the moment you post it on the web.

It feels a bit like wandering along a beach and then suddenly stumbling across a message-in-a-bottle that you'd released years before!

[60bill]

It happens even here, one of a pair of illustrations I did some time back was posted on this forum, so I just added the other one for good measure.

The problem is that many illustrations, including my own, don't have any credits or signature.

So after an illustration has sat on the computer for a while you forget whence it came and you then are unable to give the author the praise due to them.

Sometimes it just the lack of information and memory cells rather than not being courteous. Sometimes not always.