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Romania Ranks, Uniforms, and Insignia
As a Warsaw Pact member, Romania adopted armed forces
uniforms
and insignia modeled on those of the Soviet Union.
Following the
Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968,
however,
there was a gradual movement away from the Soviet model
and a
partial return to the pre-World War II army accoutrements,
including the steel helmet formerly known as the "Dutch
helmet" and
the national crest on head gear, belt buckles, and sleeve
patches.
In 1989 the armed forces used four categories of
uniforms: full
dress, dress, service, and field. The full dress uniform
was worn
for formal occasions such as parades, ceremonies
commemorating
Armed Forces Day (October 25), Navy Day (the first Sunday
in
August), Air Force Day (the third Sunday in July), and
Border
Guards Day (June 25); conferral of promotions in rank or
military
decorations; and official receptions. The dress uniform
was worn
during off-duty hours or during classes at higher military
schools.
The service uniform was for duty in garrison, and the
field uniform
was used during training, maneuvers, and firing exercises.
The
color of the basic uniform for the ground and air force
was olive
drab, and for the navy it was blue.
Officers wore blue full dress and dress uniforms, which
consisted of a single-breasted, open-collar service
jacket;
matching trousers with a red stripe; black, low quarter
shoes or
high riding boots; and a service hat. Officers
participating with
a troop formation in a parade wore the olive drab uniform
with a
cotton khaki shirt and olive drab tie, a steel helmet, an
ornate
gold pistol belt, brown gloves, breeches, and high riding
boots.
Officers in the reviewing stand had the option of wearing
the blue
uniform with long trousers, black low quarter shoes, the
service
hat, a white shirt and black tie, white gloves, and a
ceremonial
dirk or the olive drab uniform but with a service hat, a
white
shirt and olive drab tie, and white gloves. The dress
uniform for
officers was either blue or olive drab with long trousers
and low
quarter shoes but without the ornate pistol belt and
ceremonial
dirk. In winter the olive drab uniform was worn with a
doublebreasted overcoat and brown gloves. Enlisted personnel and
noncommissioned ranks wore an olive drab shirt and
trousers, a
brown leather belt with brass buckle, a garrison cap, and
black
combat boots. In winter they wore an olive drab overcoat
and a pile
cap.
The service uniform was the same as the dress olive
drab
uniform except that officers wore a brown leather Sam
Browne belt,
breeches, and high boots. Enlisted personnel could wear a
field
jacket as an outer garment with a brown leather belt and
brass
buckle. The field uniform was the same as the service
uniform
except that officers wore the field jacket instead of the
service
jacket with the Sam Browne belt and hard shoulder boards.
Enlisted
personnel wore the steel helmet in place of the garrison
cap.
Depending on the season, the overcoat, gloves, and pile
cap were
worn in the field.
The prominent features that distinguished air force,
air
defense, and airborne personnel from army personnel were
the
background color of the shoulder boards, the color of the
collar
tabs, and the color of the service hat band. Reminiscent
of the
pre-World War II era, general and field-grade air force
officers
wore a series of gold braids topped by a diamond on their
sleeves.
Members of the elite mountain-troop units wore distinctive
olive
drab ski pants, field jackets, ski/mountain boots, thick
white
socks rolled over the boot tops, and olive drab berets.
For field
training, reconnaissance unit personnel wore a mottled
green and
brown camouflage jumpsuit with attached head cover in
summer and a
white uniform in winter. Navy personnel wore uniforms
similar in
color and style to those used by most of the world's
navies. The
winter uniform was navy blue, and the summer uniform
featured a
tropical white service jacket. Enlisted seamen wore a
visorless hat
with a black band and a hat ribbon worn in pigtail
fashion.
In 1989, Romanian military rank structure conformed to
that
used by the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact
nations. There
were four general officer ranks, three field-grade ranks,
and four
company-grade ranks. Enlisted ranks included privates and
noncommissioned officers. The naval rank structure was
analogous,
but there were only three admiral ranks.
All rank insignia was displayed on shoulder loops or
shoulder
boards and tended to be ornate for commissioned officers
and plain
for enlisted personnel. General officers wore a shoulder
board with
a red background and a broad ornate gold stripe and silver
stars
set on a red background. The shoulder board worn by air
force
general officers had a blue background, whereas that worn
by navy
admirals featured a navy blue background and gold stars.
Fieldgrade officers wore a shoulder board with three
longitudinal gold
stripes on a background of the color designated for the
branch of
service and smaller silver stars. For company-grade
officers, the
shoulder board had two longitudinal gold stripes and even
smaller
silver stars. The shoulder boards of enlisted and
noncommissioned
officer ranks featured transverse gold stripes on a
background of
olive drab or the color designated for the branch of
service along
with a branch-of-service metallic insignia. Navy officers
wore gold
sleeve stripes and stars, and the lowest enlisted seamen
wore gold
chevrons on the sleeve
(see
fig. 10;
fig. 11).
Data as of July 1989
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