Early Cadet Corps Cadet Officer cap badge

In the past, I’ve been asked if I’ve ever come across any examples of the United States Maritime Service (USMS) officer cap badge with eagles facing their left (viewer’s right). For researchers of U.S. Navy uniforms, the way the eagle faces has always been a good rule of thumb to date whether or not a naval cap or uniform is either pre-1941 or post-1941; U.S. Navy eagles began facing their own right (viewer’s left) from May 1941, onward. In this light, the question is valid, especially given that a naval badge awarded to merchant seamen – the U.S.N.R. badge – obeyed this stylistic maxim. But, in regard to USMS cap eagles, my answer has always been: I’m not sure. However, after examining early United States Maritime Commission Cadet Corps (USMC-CC) photographs, I can say with some certainty that there never was a USMC-CC/USMS cap eagle that faced their left.

I mention the USMC-CC and not USMS, since prior to the United States’ entry into the Second World War, the United States Maritime Commission had two training activities with two different missions with its own distinct set of uniforms and insignia. The USMC-CC was involved in training maritime cadets: that is young men out of high school or college who wished to become ship’s officers; and, the USMS was concerned with upgrade courses for merchant seamen to become licensed ships officers and basic seamanship training for entry-level positions in the merchant fleet. In no way did the insignia of these two organizations overlap; the USMS had a distinct U.S. Coast Guard feel to it since the Coast Guard was charged with administering training mission; whereas the Cadet Corps’ commandants and instructors were either drawn from the US Navy or officers in the Merchant Marine and enrolled in the U.S. Navy’s Merchant Marine Reserve, thus informing USMC-CC’s uniforming. With USMC’s training activity reorganization in July 1942, the USMS took training from the U.S. Coast Guard and assumed the administration of the USMC-CC. training.

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The familiar USMS cap badge of eagle and shield with anchor was adopted by both USMC-CC training cadre and cadet officers in 1939. Sharing of the insignia by training cadre and students is curious; however, I posit this is not completely out of line with USMC-CC’s training mission. Cadet officers were in a liminal space – they were graduates of nautical schools, yet were unable to find employment – and they decided to avail themselves of additional training provided by USMC-CC instead of waiting it out on the beach. After enrollment in USMC-CC, they went to a processing station and shipped out. Between ships and while on the shore, they took on training roles at any of the USMC-CC training establishments; in this capacity, they were junior instructors. They donned USMC-CC training cadre cap badges while in their instructor role; on ship, if so prescribed, they wore uniforms and insignia of the steamship company. USMC-CC cadets proper wore a cap badge derived from the cadre cap badge – the anchor from the shield. I have not seen evidence that USMC-CC cadet officers continued to wear the cap badge after separation from the program at their new places of employment.

USMS appropriated the cap badge from USMC-CC training cadre and cadet officers in 1942/1943. There is no literature stating why. If I am to offer an educated guess, in terms of the overall design, the eagle and shield device lends itself better to mass production than the then-existing USMS cap badge. At the time, insignia houses scaled-down production of embroidered cap badges across the board and began offering stamped metal badges en masse. And, the USMC-CC cap badge is more naval and perhaps a bit more handsome. It is worth mentioning that when USMS reconfigured its insignia, it did not simply adopt all USMC-CC insignia, it came out with shoulder boards, buttons, and cuff devices with completely new designs.

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Back to the initial discussion point, in taking a look at the early U.S. Maritime Commission Cadet Corps, I came across a group photo of all training cadres present at Fort Schuyler from 1940/1941. At the time, this photograph represented a quarter of USMC-CC training cadre; the other staff would be district cadet training officers at various ports, administration staff in Washington D.C., and training cadre at the other two training stations: Algiers Navy Yard, San Francisco, California, and Bayou St. John, Louisiana. The photograph also illustrated how all training cadre wore embroidered cap badges with eagles facing right (viewer’s left); incidentally, the U.S.N.R. badges show their eagles facing left (viewer’s right). The U.S. Navy officer is wearing a cap badge in the pre-May 1941 style.

The cap badge at the top of this post is a 1939-1940 example from the estate of an ex-U.S. Maritime Commission Cadet Corps officer cadet. Embroidered cap badges continued to be made throughout the war and even during the period when manufacturers made stamped metal badges. Thus, unlike U.S. navy cap badges, where the time period of the cap badge may be determined by which direction the eagle faces, embroidered USMS badges may be dated by style and construction and the quality of the weave. Early USMC-CC cap badges have sharp, tapering wings with a thin, oval body, and are on a tombstone-style pad; the eagle’s head points up at an angle. Embroidery is with fine thread. Like U.S. Navy embroidered cap badges, the eagle is embroidered directly to the cap band and is not on an affixed badge. Stylistically, this eagle looks as though it is poised for flight. From 1942 onward, later eagles have bowing wings, a trapezoidal body, and a beak on a horizontal axis. Embroidery for these badges is often not so fine. The pad for the later eagles (often manufactured by Gemsco) is usually half-oval. This eagle appears at rest, replete with a hooked beak. Joe Tonelli has an excellent representation of most varieties of USMS embroidered cap badges, here.

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