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by iwnit on September 10th, 2009
"From 1872 the majors received oak leaves in gold to distinguish them from the silver of lieutenant colonels and the bars of both captains and lieutenants became silver. In a similar fashion, 1917 saw the introduction of a single gold bar for second lieutenants. These changes created the curious situation (in terms of heraldic tradition) of silver outranking gold. One after-the-fact explanation suggested by some NCOs is that the more-malleable gold suggests that the bearer is being "molded" for his or her responsibilities -- as a field officer (second lieutenant) or staff officer (major). However, this explanation may be more clever than correct, for while the insignia for second lieutenant and major are gold colored they are actually made of brass (except that the gold bars used to "pin on" a Second Lieutenant at the US Military Academy are, by tradition, 14kt gold), and brass is a base metal while silver is a precious metal. The rank order thus does not actually conflict with heraldic tradition."
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Army_officer_rank_insignia
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by GibsonGuy on April 8th, 2011
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You're reading Why in the military does silver outrank gold? A brand new lieutenant has a gold bar, gets promoted and gets a silver bar. Same deal going from a major to lieutenant colonel.
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