Without its own Medical department or corps to train physicians, the Coast Guard was one of the leading organizations in the utilization of Physician’s Assistants to lighten the demand on medical doctors from the U.S. Public Health Service serving with the Coast Guard. By the late 1980s, however, the Guard began transitioning its Physician’s Assistant Warrant Officers into Commissioned Officers. By the year 2004, only one Physician Assistant was still serving as a Warrant Officer, with the specialty mark having been removed from the manual a year earlier.
The Physician’s Assistant sleeve device combines the gold Coast Guard shield and the gold caduceus that serves as the specialty mark on a single square of blue serge fabric. Worn on both sleeves of the Service Dress Blue coat, the device is positioned so the two insignias (shield and caduceus) are centered horizontally on the outside of the sleeve, then it’s placed so the bottom of the shield is one-quarter of an inch from the top of the CWO rank stripe.
Full guidance on Chief Warrant Officer sleeve ornamentation can be found in Section 4.A.1., “Commissioned and Chief Warrant Officers,” of the Coast Guard Uniform Regulations (COMDTINST M1020.6J).
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