Scrambled egg (uniform)

Dutch Admiral Helfrich with British Air Marshal Brooke-Popham both wearing peaked caps with embellishments

Scrambled eggs (American English) or scrambled egg (British English) is a slang term for the typically leaf-shaped embellishments found on the visors of peaked caps worn by military officers and (by metonymy) for the senior officers who wear them. The phrase is derived from the resemblance that the emblems have to scrambled eggs, particularly when the embellishments are gold in color.

Today the "scrambled eggs" emblem, in one form or another, have been adopted by the majority of the world's navies. Exceptions include the French Navy and Italian Armed Forces, which use embroideries on the officers' cap bands to indicate seniority. Although the use of the term is principally military, some civilians (such as airline and merchant ship captains and (primarily in the United States) senior uniformed law enforcement officers) have similar embellishments on the peaks or visors of their hats.

British and Commonwealth countries

General Sir Richard Dannatt wearing a forage cap with gold oak leaf embellishments.

In the British Armed Forces, and in the armed forces of several other Commonwealth countries, scrambled egg (singular) is a nickname for the gold braid (called an "oak leaf sprig") on the peak of senior officers' peaked caps, and by extension a nickname for an officer. Specifically, Flag Officers, General Officers and Air Officers have two rows of golden oak leaves, while commodores, captains and commanders (Royal Navy), brigadiers and colonels (Army), and group captains (RAF) have one row.

Amongst the one-star ranks there is disparity. Specifically, as Navy commodores are not classified as flag officers and Army brigadiers are not general officers, they only have one row of golden oak leaves. However, the equivalent (but lower in precedence) Air Force rank of air commodore is classified as an air officer and hence has two rows of golden oak leaves. Disparities also exist at the OF-4 rank level with Navy commanders having one row of golden oak leaves whereas their Army and RAF counterparts (lieutenant colonel and wing commander) do not have any embellishments on their peaks.

United States

United States Air Force General Nathan Farragut Twining wearing his dress hat with silver cloud and lightning bolt embellishments

In the United States armed forces, "scrambled eggs" is the nickname for the golden oak leaf embellishments (known as fretting) on the bills of dress hats (called service caps or wheel caps in the Army and combination covers in the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard) worn by field grade and general officers in the rank/grade of Major (O-4) or higher in the Army and Marine Corps, and senior and flag officers in the rank/grade of Commander (O-5) or higher in the Navy and Coast Guard. The equivalent embellishments on the service caps (wheel caps) of field grade and general officers in the rank/grade of Chief Warrant Officer Three-Chief Warrant Officer Five (W-3-W-5), and Major (O-4) or higher in the Air Force are silver clouds and darts[1] (lightning bolts) in place of oak leaves, sometimes referred to as "farts and darts."[2][3] The difference in grades when an officer assumes the wearing of embellishments is peculiar to the individual customs and traditions of each service, i.e., the Navy and Coast Guard consider the grade of O-4 to be a junior officer rank, while the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps consider it to be a field grade officer rank. At the flag or general officer level, O-7 and higher, additional embellishments are added to distinguish them from the USN/USCG senior officer and United States/USAF/USMC field grade officer ranks.

Civilian usage

"Scrambled eggs" is also used to nickname the leaf-shaped visor decorations on the peaked caps of merchant ships' captains and airline pilots. By convention this is reserved to Captains or Deputy-Captains (of four-striped rank), in contrast to the Anglo-American naval traditions, where officers of Commander rank and above are entitled to it. Moreover, in the case of airline pilots, such "leaves", may be oak-leaf or laurel-leaf, may be gold or silver in colour, depending on individual airline uniform.

Law enforcement, fire and public safety
Many American police chiefs, sheriffs and command staff law enforcement officers such as assistant chiefs and majors may wear scrambled eggs of their ball caps or dress covers' visors. Additionally, fire chiefs, rescue squad chiefs, assistant chiefs, senior fire marshals and other senior ranking personnel such as battalion chiefs may also wear scrambled eggs on the visors of their ball cap and dress cover visors

In 1969, the Seattle Pilots of MLB's American League wore caps with gold scrambled eggs on the visor. The team failed financially, however, and moved to Milwaukee to become the Milwaukee Brewers. This was the only time in the history of major league baseball where a visor had any embellishments.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ http://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/af_a1/publication/afi36-2903/afi36-2903.pdf
  2. ↑ Scrambled Eggs on My Hat
  3. ↑
    • Whittingham, Richard. (December 1985). Saturday Afternoon: College Football and the Men Who Made the Day: Workman Pub Co. ISBN 0-89480-933-4 Phrase used to describe the passenger makeup on the train from Washington to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy game:"There were more scrambled eggs on the train than were served to the invading forces on D-Day"
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