The shoulder boards and sleeve devices worn by members of the Merchant Marine bear an understandable resemblance to their Navy counterparts, with the main difference being some branch-of-service devices, the Merchant Marine’s equivalents of the Navy’s Corps devices that denote the field in which Officers serve. A vertical, fouled anchor is worn by Merchant Marine Deck Officers, the civilian equivalent of a Line Officer in the United States Navy.
A wreathed version of the fouled anchor was used as the sleeve device for Line Officers in the United States Maritime Service (USMS) during World War II, which was responsible for training hundreds of thousands of mariners at nearly a dozen training bases during World War II. Following the Korean War, however, the training bases were shuttered, and the Maritime Service was essentially reduced to control and oversight of just one institution, the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
Besides the Merchant Marine Academy, Merchant Marine training and licensing is also offered at six state-administered maritime schools.