A World of Military Tie Bars: Ancient & Modern Themes

Product Description

Military tie bars are much more than simply a fashion accessory. They represent almost every aspect of military life except discipline. They promote morale and unity, reflect organizational mission and structure, indicate weapons development and availability, show military educational and professional accomplishment, commemorate combat campaigns, and more. In this book, you’ll find over 1,070 examples related to 41 nations and NATO. They reflect military activity from ancient through modern times. They include military tie bars used in U.S. presidential campaigns – like JFK’s PT-109.In the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, neckties are worn on some types of uniforms worn by all ranks. In the U.S. Navy, they are not worn on the uniforms of sailors below the rank of Chief Petty Officer. Service regulations limit the types of tie bars that can be worn with uniforms. However, many service members like to communicate their service pride by wearing military tie bars with their civilian neckties. They often give gifts of these tie bars to family and friends.In some countries, military commands and units have made it a practice of giving visitors tie bars, sets of tie bars and cufflinks, etc., with the unit emblem. In fact, receiving a couple of those sets from Japanese military units is what got me into collecting all types of tie bars.Military tie bars represent one of the largest sets of tie bars that have been created. On the basis of over thirty-five years of receiving and collecting military tie bars, I estimate that at least 25,000 unique designs have been produced. Tie bars have probably been developed for almost every type of aircraft, naval vessel, weapons system, and organizational unit.All of the tie bars in this book are in the much larger Volume II Parts A and B of The Development of Evolution of Men’s Tie Bars, which contains many non-military tie bars. I created this book for those who are only interested in militaria.Many of these tie bars belonged to hundreds of military members. Many also have special meaning to me because they were given to me as gifts or because they relate to experiences I had during my military service or my years in the Defense Department.