page_title: United States military beret flash
section_title: US Army
hierarchical_section_title: United States military beret flash / History / US Army
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of the U.S. Army Institute of Heraldry's manufacturing instructions for the production of the Department of the Army Beret Flash
context_page_description: In the United States armed forces of today, a beret flash is a shield-shaped embroidered cloth or large polished metallic insignia that is usually attached to a stiffener backing of a military beret. The attached beret flash is worn over the left eye of the wearer with the excess cloth of the beret shaped, folded, and pulled over the right ear giving it a distinctive appearance. The embroidered designs of the US Army's beret flashes represent the distinctive heraldic colors and patterns of units with unique missions or represent the US Army overall while the US Air Force's represent their Air Force Specialty Code or their assignment to a unit with a unique mission. Joint beret flashes, such as the Multinational Force and Observers Beret Flash and United Nations Peacekeepers Beret Flash, are worn by all of the US armed forces on unique berets while assigned to a specific multinational mission.
  With the exception of joint beret flashes and some one-off wear requirements, US Army soldiers and Non-Commissioned Officers attach their Distinctive Unit Insignia to the beret flash.
context_section_description: It is not clear when organizational beret flashes began to be used by the US Army.  However, US Army films and photographs between 1956 and 1962 suggest the modern-day organizational beret flashes may have been introduced in late 1961, around the time the green beret was officially authorized for wear by members of the US Army's Special Forces units.  Prior to that time, the green beret was worn informally by those assigned to Special Forces units who used their Parachutist Badge as their beret flash.  The Parachutist Badge was worn high on the beret positioned either over the left eye or left temple and officers would wear their polished metal rank insignia below their badge.  As these Special Forces units began to adopt their organizational beret flashes, they also adopted rules as to who in their unit would be allowed to wear them.  For example, only special operations qualified paratroopers were authorized to wear their Special Forces unit's organizational beret flash while none-qualified soldiers wore a cloth recognition bar, color and pattern matched to their unit's organizational beret flash, below their DUI or officer rank insignia.
  Other beret accouterments began to appear in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly between 1973 and 1979 when the US Department of the Army's morale-enhancing order was in force and various colored berets began to be worn my numerous units and branches of the US Army.  Historical photographs from the 1960s through the 1970s show paratroopers and rangers assigned to various ranger units wearing an Airborne Tab, Ranger Tab, or custom made Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol Tab on their black beret above their DUI, Parachutist Badge, or rank insignia (see Example 1).  In the late 1970s, ranger units began incorporating their Ranger Tab onto the top of their unit's organization beret flash.  In 1973, paratroopers in various airborne units began wearing maroon berets and in 1974 the soldiers in the 101st Airborne Div began wearing dark-blue berets.  Historical photographs of these paratroopers in the 1970s show them wearing their Parachutist Badge on their maroon beret, just as members of Special Forces had done on their green berets in the 1950s, but unlike the Special Forces they also wore their unit's background trimming—which made their debut in World War II—with officers and some enlisted and NCOs wearing their polished metal rank insignia below it (see Example 2).  Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Div wore their maroon berets differently in the early 1970s and used their unit's DUI as their beret flash (see Example 3).  Similarly, US Army articles and historical photographs of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Div show them wearing traditionally styled US Army organizational beret flashes, patterned after their unit's background trimming, with their polished metal rank insignia (enlisted, NCOs, and officers alike) attached; later, between 1976 and 1977, 101st soldiers would add their Air Assault Badge to their berets and wore them to the left of the wearer's beret flash (see Example 4).  The aforementioned US Army articles and historical photographs also describe and show the use of unique US Army branch specific berets that were worn by some soldiers in the 1970s that were dyed to match the heraldic colors of their branch.  These soldiers would attached either their branch insignia or regimental insignia on these branch-specific berets to be used as their beret flash.  Another example worth noting are specific armor units with the US Army's armored cavalry regiments (RGTs) in Germany in the 1970s who began wearing black berets with a maroon and white cloth oval as their beret flash.  These Armor soldiers wore the oval behind their DUI, to the left of the wearer's polished metal rank insignia (enlisted, NCOs, and officers alike), and positioned over their left temple (see Example 5).  Also during the 1970s, soldiers of the 172nd Infantry BDE began to wear olive-drab berets with traditionally styled organizational beret flashes that were unique to each Battalion (BN) and worn in the same ma
caption: TIOH manufacturing instruction for Department of the Army Beret Flash
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