Though sometimes worn on civilian evening and din-ner dress clothing, chained or linked buttons are a common component of formal dress uniforms across all branches of the United States Armed Forces, and the U.S. Coast Guard is no exception.
Chained buttons embossed with the Coast Guard emblem are a required component of the Men’s Dinner Dress Blue and Dinner Dress White Jacket (DDBJ and DDWJ) worn with the eponymously named uniforms. Two 28-ligne buttons are worn through buttholes just below the bottom of the lapel on both uniforms, held together by a linked gold chain approximately .75” in length.
Women in the Guard wear precisely the same button-and-chain device, but it is considered an optional wear item on both the DDBJ and DDWJ. Linked closures were not authorized for any women’s uniforms until 1997.