Senior Enlisted Advisor To The Chairman - Insignia

Insignia

• When the SEAC is a soldier, he wears a unique collar insignia featuring the shield portion of the insignia of an aide-de-camp to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (less the surmounting eagle), placed upon a gold-colored Army enlisted collar disk, one inch in diameter; the collar brass is also worn in place of distinctive unit insignia on his beret, garrison cap, and pull-over sweater, in the same manner as the Sergeant Major of the Army wears his unique collar brass. This insignia is in keeping with the collar devices of U.S. Army enlisted soldiers, and is patterned directly upon that of the Sergeant Major of the Army.

• Because Sergeant Major Battaglia is a Marine, he does not have unique collar insignia. It remains to be seen if the Army's SEAC collar brass, or variations of it, will be worn by future SEACs from other services.

• Although the Army approved the Joint Chiefs of Staff's request for unique collar insignia for the SEAC on 20 December 2005, the same memorandum rejected unique rank insignia, and CSM Gainey continued to use the rank title/acronym of a Command Sergeant Major (despite receiving the special SEA pay rate). Consequently, as the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he is the senior ranking enlisted member in the U.S. Armed Forces, an Army incumbent wears theoretically inferior rank insignia and has a nominally inferior rank titles/acronyms to that of the individual services' SEAs. No decision has been made as to whether SgtMaj Battaglia and future Marine SEACs will wear a unique rank insignia. It remains to be seen if the other services will authorize unique rank (or a duplication of their respective SEAs' rank) when the SEAC is a member of their respective service.