Aiguillettes?

[willie777]

I mean if a conscript wanted a regulation, not made up aiguillette, they would probably have to stael it form their superiors, when they would get caught and their good service medals revoked.

A little off topic here, but were medals worn with honor guard uniforms?

[ibaya]

Don't know about that. If the soldier was assigned to a district or unit that wore aiguilletes, it might be possible the local Voentorg carried these for replacement purchase (issued items lost or destroyed due to negligence had to be replaced at own expense).

Aiguillettes are distinct from personal awards, such as medals, orders and qualifications. I think the worst that would have happened was that they would be confiscated for poor taste.

[willie777]

The medals or the aiguillettes?

[ibaya]

The medals or the aiguillettes?

The medals would definitely be confiscated and the soldier prosecuted. Wearing unauthorized personal awards was/is a crime.

I'd think the aiguillettes would simply be confiscated. Again, aiguillettes were not personal awards, they were issued as part of unit uniform. They are not to be confused with aiguillettes that indicate office, such as general's/admiral's/presidential aides in Western militaries.

Now I'm confused. Conscripts usually made the cords for their dembel uniforms.

If conscripts did not have access to Soviet-issue aiguillettes (e.g. were not in honor guards, did not parade in capitals and hero cities), yes, they made improvised ones. I guess if they wanted to embellish official ones, they could do that, too. Whatever was available, and whatever their imaginations could come up with ...

[Lapa]

I mean if a conscript wanted a regulation, not made up aiguillette, they would probably have to stael it form their superiors, when they would get caught and their good service medals revoked.

No need to steal anything here, a simple trip to the local Voentorg would do.

Marc

[willie777]

At any given time, were aiguillettes worn on both shoulders?

[Tretov]

At any given time, were aiguillettes worn on both shoulders?

No, I think that would look just silly.

[willie777]

In the US, some people wear them on both shoulders. If an infantryman is also an aide to a general, hw wears an infantry blue shoulder cord over his right shoulder and a gold aiguillette over his left. Also, at my local JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps), some cadets wear one cord over each shoulder.

[Tretov]

Well, at least I have never seen that on any images from the USSR :confused:

[Synthesis]

If memory serves, there's the very famous portrait of an of the Army Honor Guard at "Checkpoint Charlie" in Berlin--it's part of a two set, one being an American soldier in parade form, the other one being Soviet. He was wearing an aiguillette cord, though I don't remember the color.

I've also seen pictures of soldiers from other honor guard units wearing them--both army, and the KGB Guards assigned to the Kremlin (OKP-Special Kremlin Regiment? Not sure on the terminology). I'd upload them, but they're quite big, unfortunately...and I'm not certain on the message board's policey about linking images, from, say, photoshop. In them, you can clearly see them worn both on normal uniforms, and on winter parade uniforms--they appear to be gold augilettes, for both enlisted men and officers.

On a side note, members of the Red Army Choir, who wore enlisted honor guard uniforms, had silver augilettes. I have a DVD of theirs--I can take a screenshot, if no-one else has a picture.