US Military Aiguillettes and Gloves

(Note: I've dug out my old dress blues to show how the aiguillettes were worn. I doubt a warrant officer would have occasion to wear these.)

Back in the 1980s I bought a nice full dress accessory group along with a Model 1902 sword from the estate of an older retired senior Army officer that had passed. I’ll be posting the sword with all its accessories next week, but these are the non-sword related items that came with the group.

The focus of this post are the aiguillettes. According to Army regulations, these are worn by on the right side by the Military Aide to the President, White House social aids while on duty to the First Family, and officers designated as aides to foreign heads of state. Other aides-de-camp and Army attaches to embassies wear them on the left side. As you can see, they come in two parts. The shorter cord would be worn under the arm with service uniforms like the Army greens, similar to the fourragère I posted last week. The second strand would be added, crossed over the arm on the outside, for dress uniforms like the dress blues above.

The aiguillettes are made of heavy gold metallic thread, with highly decorated dull gold pendants (ferrules). That’s the unsolved mystery! Army Reg 670-1 does not prescribe how the ferrule is to be decorated, and if you look at the ferrules closely, you’ll notice what may be the Greek helmet and sword insignia for the US Military Academy at West Point. Could this be just a coincidence or is there a West Point connection? I have no idea who would wear this at the Academy, but it is a quality piece made with expensive materials that I suspect was purchased by someone important.

The other item is a pair of very nicely made white kid leather gloves that was likely worn by the officer on dress and ceremonial occasions. Behind the gloves and aiguillettes in the last picture is a gold silk waist sash that will wait for description in next week’s post.