It’s no secret that the Army constantly changes its approaches to recruiting, rolling out ad campaigns based on new themes on a regular basis. What’s a little surprising, on the other hand, is just how many changes the Recruiting Badge worn by Army personnel has undergone since it was first approved in November 1966. A mere eight years elapsed before the badge’s design was changed, and in 1975 the regulations were modified to allow for achievement stars to be detachable. In 1981, a reduced size of the badge was approved by the Department of the Army, and a new attachment, a sapphire star, was authorized for a gold version of the badge.
Fast forward to 2010, at which time the Army suspended not only the award of gold achievement stars (up to three) for wear with the basic Recruiter Badge on 20 September 2010, but also ended the awarding of the Gold Recruiter Badge the following day. (The official announcement appeared in USAREC Supplement 1 to AR 600-8-22 dated 1 June 2011). Presumably, the Gold badge was eliminated ahead of the effective date of the introduction of the Master Recruiter Badge, which was approved by the Chief of Staff in February 2011.
Further clarification regarding the Gold Recruiter Badge and its sapphire star attachments appeared in a major revision to AR 600-8-22 dated 25 June 2015, which stated that it “suspends award of the Gold Recruiter Badge with one, two, or three sapphires.”
But on 20 October 2016, while speaking at the U.S. Army Recruiting Command’s Annual Leaders Training Conference, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Debra Wada announced that the Gold Recruiter Badge was reinstated. The status of sapphire stars for the Gold Recruiter Badge, however, was not mentioned in the news release regarding the policy change.