Sergeant First Class shoulder marks are worn on a wide variety of uniform components, including the long- and short-sleeve Service Uniform shirts (AGSU and ASU), the Maternity Shirt, Black Cardigan, Black Windbreaker, Black All-Weather Coat, and the Black or Heritage Green Pullover Sweater.
We offer shoulder marks in two sizes; both are 2.125” at the base, but the Large is an inch longer (4.25”) with a more dramatic taper than the Small size. The two sizes are available so that personnel may choose the one that fits best on the garment on which the shoulder marks will be worn.
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In a fairly extensive timeline of the history of enlisted rank insignia, The Institute of Heraldry writews that the rank of First Sergeant was created in 1861, and that the rank of Sergeant First Class was established in 1899 along with Electrician Sergeants, Stable Sergeants, Drum Majors, Mechanics and Cooks. But according to the book United States Army Grade Insignia Since 1776 by military and uniform historian Preston B. Perrenot, Sergeants First Class were introduced in the Signal Corps sometime between 1851 and 1872 and given their own insignia During that same period, a “Sergeant First Class was equivalent to a First Sergeant,” who wore three branch-colored chevrons, points up, over a branch-colored lozenge.
In the massive Congressional overhaul of Army enlisted grades and ranks in 1920, the number of enlisted grades and insignia was consolidated into just seven each (the lowest grade of Private lacked an insignia, while the 2 pay grade had two different ranks) and Sergeant First Class was eliminated. Almost forty years would elapse before the Army brought back the rank of Sergeant First Class in 1958, placing it in the third-highest enlisted pay grade (E7) and designating it with the three chevrons long associated with Sergeants placed above two arcs, or rockers.
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