We always accuse all the Army and indeed RN aircrew of being a bit Boy Scoutish in their approach to collecting badges but I do feel as though I have now arrived as I am now in possession of not only my HQ and RN badges but also my name badge with rather natty Arabic script translation above - at least I presume it is a translation of my name, it could be saying 'Kick Me!' for all I know.
The real problem with desert camouflage is that it is so damn camouflagy that it is virtually impossible to identify someone else's rank, particularly if from a foreign country, at greater than about 6" from them. The US Forces insist on having Officer rank badges that are almost identical to their ratings badges and since you can get about 6 different varieties of Chief Petty Officer (we just have the one!) its hardly surprising no one gets saluted, at least they don't tend tomake too much of a fuss! Almost everyone has very smart desert gear apart from the US Marines who have the latest digitised pattern which is all pixellated greys - it looks very much like they have been standing under a very large seagull colony, which never ceases to amuse me.
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