Aiguillettes are worn by Officers and enlisted Airmen serving in ceremonial units such as Honor Guards, Drill Teams, Color Guards, and Military Funeral Details, as well as by Arlington National Cemetery Chaplains.
They are also used to distinguish Air Force personnel who are serving as aides or attachés. Aiguillettes are worn on the wearer’s right shoulder when serving as an aide to the President or Vice President, as a White House social aide, or as an aide to foreign heads of state; in all other instances they are worn on the left.
Officers serving as aides to Generals wear two types of aiguillettes. The standard single-looped, chrome tipped version is used when wearing the Service Dress uniform, while a double-looped version (one open, one closed) with two chrome tips featuring raised “wing and star” emblems is employed when protocol calls for the wear of the Mess Dress uniform.
For double-looped aiguillettes, wear the open-end loop under the epaulet of the left shoulder, grounded to the shoulder seam. The closed loop is pinned under the left lapel on a line even with the second shirt stud, causing the chrome tips to hang naturally along the lapel.