Air Force Major shoulder boards

[Riley1965]

I finally found a pair of shoulder boards for an Air Force Major.:thumbsup

Doc

[Nack]

Nice boards. I like this version.

FYI, I believe that the insignia means that he was air force "technical" personnel as opposed to aviation—so a mechanic, etc.

[Riley1965]

Nack,
You are right. They are to a technical branch which is exactly what my researched Colonel was. I am very happy with this pair!!!

Doc

[Nack]

Did AF technical folks not go to acadamies, and therefore not wear academy badges? I just picked up a 70s-80s? AF technical branch cpt service uniform (1-piece buttons w/o date) that has lots of wear, but no hole where an academy badge would have been. Whats the deal?

[Riley1965]

Nack,
I just pulled up the service record for Colonel Fedorov. He started out as a Cadet, Courses of Jr. Lieutenants, 1st Red Army at the start of his career. I would imagine that there would not have been a badge.
He had no badge
:confused: Doc

[January]

Riley is right--no reason to expect that an Army or Air Force captain had attended an academy yet. Now, if you found a colonel's uniform that was like that, or a Navy captain's, that would be a whole different story. But an Army captain could have advanced from platoon to company commander without academy training.

[Nack]

Ahh! Very interesting. So for officer uniforms below col., you will find both tunics that have evidence of academy badges being worn, and others that have no hole. I guess I just assumed that you had to go to school before you were commissioned (or whatever). You know what they say about assumptions :rolleyes: Thanks guys :thumbsup

[January]

Interestingly, position was more important than rank in the Soviet military; someone could be (for instance) promoted from platoon commander to company commander but not actually be promoted to the appropriate rank for months. As a result of this, situations existed where captains saluted lieutenants, lieutenant colonels saluted majors, etc.

There were "academies" as we tend to think of them where cadets earned a commission, but it was not necessary to attend these to become an officer, and there were higher academies for officers wishing to advance their careers. To advance beyond a certain rank, you would have to have academy training. To get this, you had to be recommended by your superior officer, his superior, etc. If any one of these officers didn't think that you were appropriate material for the academy, you didn't get to go. Even with all the appropriate approvals, you still had to be accepted by the academy (I've heard of officers applying to remote academies in Siberia or Central Asia because they were less competitive). With the academy badge, you could advance further than you might otherwise be able to. Later on, you might be sent to a general staff academy to study to advance even further. These different "levels" of academies were the reason for different colours of academy badges. You were allowed to wear up to three academy badges, provided that each represented a different level of education.

Another interesting note on academies: Every year the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvyedza published a list of all the names of available academies with brief discriptions of each. These descriptions were often deliberately vague. An officer could choose which academy he wanted to attend, but often wouldn't find out until his second year there what he was studying to do. A tank commander, for instance, might be suprised to find himself studying for the Strategic Rocket Forces. Also, academies often had deceptive names--there was (is?) a notable artillery school named after Dzerzhensky. GRU/State Security schools were even more secretive, going so far as to award graduates a diplomatic degree and credentials so as to conceal their actual schooling.

(Sorry for rambling; I collect academy badges and this stuff is really interesting to me...)

[Nack]

Thanks for the information! All this academy information, like a lot of cold-war-era-USSR details--seems particularly hard to come by for the non-Russian speaker (like me).

[ekclete]

Thanks January, I was not aware of how an officer might earn an academy badge and your explanation was great. Thank you Clete