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Title 10 — Armed ForcesRelease 119-73not60

§773 When Distinctive Insignia Required

Title 10 › Subtitle Subtitle A— General Military Law › Part II— PERSONNEL › Chapter 45— THE UNIFORM › § 773

Last updated Apr 3, 2026|Official source

Summary

People may wear certain military-style uniforms only if the uniform has a special insignia set by the Secretary of the military department so it looks different from Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Space Force uniforms. This covers school uniforms for instructors or cadet corps at colleges, universities, or high schools with military courses, and uniforms of veteran military societies when the President allows them. Those uniforms cannot use officer rank insignia. Under rules the Secretary sets, someone allowed to attend an ROTC course but not a corps member may wear that corps’ uniform while attending.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §773

Armed Forces — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)A person for whom one of the following uniforms is prescribed may wear it, if it includes distinctive insignia prescribed by the Secretary of the military department concerned to distinguish it from the uniform of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Space Force, as the case may be:
(1)The uniform prescribed by the university, college, or school for an instructor or member of the organized cadet corps of—
(A)a State university or college, or a public high school, having a regular course of military instruction; or
(B)an educational institution having a regular course of military instruction, and having a member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Space Force as instructor in military science and tactics.
(2)The uniform prescribed by a military society composed of persons discharged honorably or under honorable conditions from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Space Force to be worn by a member of that society when authorized by regulations prescribed by the President.
(b)A uniform prescribed under subsection (a) may not include insignia of grade the same as, or similar to, those prescribed for officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Space Force.
(c)Under such regulations as the Secretary of the military department concerned may prescribe, any person who is permitted to attend a course of instruction prescribed for members of a reserve officers’ training corps, and who is not a member of that corps, may, while attending that course of instruction, wear the uniform of that corps.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

Revised sectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large) 773(a) 773(b)10:1393 (words between 4th and 7th semicolons of 1st proviso, and 2d proviso, of 1st par.).10:1393 (last proviso of 1st par.).
June 3, 1916, ch. 134, § 125 (words between 4th and 7th semicolons of 1st proviso, and 2d and last provisos, of 1st par.), 39 Stat. 216;
June 4, 1920, ch. 228, § 8, 41 Stat. 836; Sept. 15, 1951, ch. 402, 65 Stat. 323;
July 6, 1953, ch. 180, § 1, 67 Stat. 140. In subsection (a), the word “mark” is omitted as surplusage. In subsection (a)(2), the words “persons discharged honorably or under honorable conditions from” are substituted for the words “entirely of honorably discharged officers or enlisted men, or both, of”. The words “Regular or Volunteer” are omitted as surplusage. The words “when authorized by

Regulations

prescribed by” are substituted for the words “upon occasions authorized by

Regulations

of”.

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2021—Subsecs. (a), (b). Pub. L. 116–283 substituted “Marine Corps, or Space Force” for “or Marine Corps” in subsec. (a) wherever appearing and in subsec. (b). 1958—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 85–355 added subsec. (c).

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

10 U.S.C. § 773

Title 10 — Armed Forces

Last Updated

Apr 3, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60