All standard uniform shirts had a sewn name tape above the right chest pocket and a 'US Army' tape above the left. Early in the conflict the name tape was made of black lettering embroided on a white cloth strip, and from 1965 onwards with black lettering embroided on a dark olive green background. The 'US Army' tape had 'US ARMY' in gold embroided on a strip of dark olive cloth. Due to the high visibility of these combined with the growing treath of enemy attacks all around the country the use of subdued insignia was allowed from mid-1966 onwards for all cloth insignia, including unit-, rank-, and specialist patches and the name- and 'US Army' tapes. Subdued insignia are made of black lettering or figures, embroided on an OG 107 (same color as the standard uniform) cotton background. Altough all insignia were usually worn on duty shirts, the high rate of wear and mass laundering of clothing in the field sometimes resulted in shirts with just the 'US Army' tape and a divisional patch, or no insignia at all. This was because a shirt seldom came back to the same person that had turned it in at the laundry; usually everyone helped himself to a fitting shirt from a pile of washed clothing.
The correct placing of the name- and 'US Army' tapes on thr Tropical Combat shirt presented a problem due to the slanted chest pockets, and they were sewn both in line with the pockets as parallel to the ground as the wearer preferred, until regulations stated that the tapes should be worn parallel to the ground from 1968 onwards.
In reality both colored and subdued insignia were worn thoughout the conflict. This was mainly due to shortage of subdued insignia, but sometimes deliberately as is the case with the 101st Airborne division whose members wore full color 'Screaming Eagle' divisional patches on their left upper sleeve.
Rank- and specialist patches (such as jumpwings, Combat Infantry Batch etc.) that are ususally made in metal were also available in a cloth subdued version for wear on both the field- and duty uniforms, although most paratroopers wore their metal jumpwings on their shirt or cap in the field.
Rank insignia
as stated before all rank insignia were also available in a subdued cloth version, but from 1968 onwards a subdued (blackened) metal pin-on rank insignia was available for all NCO ranks, which were pinned to both collar lapels. Officers continued to use a subdued cloth rank insignia sewn to the right collar lapel, while they would have a subdued cloth branch of service insignia sewn to their left collar lapel. Rank insignia (both cloth and metal) were also often worn on the front of the helmet, attached to the camouflage cover.