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this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2026
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Well, there's a 2 part answer to that. MARPAT, which you are referencing, contains little EGAs (Eagle, Globe, Anchor - the trademarked logo of the marines) and it's intent was to both distinguish it from other branches uniforms and reduce the amount of commercial knock offs.
For rank, we've borrowed rank insignia from predecessors, so you can't really trademark that.
The rank honestly means nothing to anyone outside the military. And it only matters when you're trying to figure out who has the authority to make certain decisions. Faking rank or impersonating a different rank will get you into trouble FAST.
Unlike currency, which has value on it's own, the rank means nothing without the paperwork to back it. There's paperwork behind your rank, and THAT'S what matters. Not the insignia itself.
yeah but as you said faking it is something you don't want. Thus you want to make it has hard to do in the first place so you don't get to the point of going after the person. I mean counterfitting will get you in trouble fast to if your caught. Im kinda surprised they never said. Hey we are redoing insignia so that its unique to us.
Sure, but cost/benefit analysis says it's not worth the time and effort. The rank insignia have tradition behind them that the military wants to maintain.
It's HARD to fake the paperwork. And that's what you'd really need to fake it effectively. People will catch you very quickly.
I also don't think there's enough benefit to anyone faking it for it to matter either. People do "stolen valor" all the time, and what do they actually get out of it?
So what's the motivation to fake it in the first place?
I don't think every interaction between military personelle involves checking one anothers paperwork. As I said it basically like currency. Why would somone want to make a duplicate of a police badge. Well that would be to pretend to be a policeman. why would someone duplicate some rank insignia. well to pretend to be someone in the particular thing at that particular rank.
I think we may be talking past each other.
People fake money, because then they can spend more money than they have.
There really aren't any benefits to faking being in the military of a certain rank.
People WILL check you paperwork in the military, when you show up. I'm not going to just do whatever some random Lt Col tells me, unless I KNOW who they are.
It's like being in school. Your teacher expects certain students to be there. If they see someone they don't know, they find out why.
There is literally no reason to protect insignia from being produced by whomever. It holds no value by itself.
yeah all the same on any particular day a substitute can show up and none of the students are going to check credentials. I get it but im sure there is some scenario where someone might try. I get it though. Its pretty far fetched and not worth it for them to bother. Still I don't feel its to far fetched for them deciding to have an exclusize thing with it like with the camo.
Totally, if someone really wants to, they can, but it would be hard to do anything useful with it. And the school example was meant to be something relatable to you, since most people have been to a school, but haven't been in the military.
It is more rigorous in the military. People DO ask if someone new shows up without a sponsor.
Also, to even get on a military base, you have to have a military ID.
Doing it in public though? Super easy.