On a US Army uniform, what do the stripes on the forearm represent? I’m pretty sure it has to do with serving in a combat zone. What does each stripe represent? Is there any limit to the number a soldier can get? Is there an offical name for these stripes?
I just took my kid to a Jr. ROTC ball, and saw a 1st sergeant in dress blues with both sleves covered in stripes up to the elbow.
Stripes on the arm are an indication of an enlisted person’s rank. Here is a list of the enlisted insignia for each branch. If the person in question had a ton of stripes up and down, he was probably Master Sergeant or Sergeant Major.
The diagonal stripes on the left sleeve are for every 3 years of service. The horizontal stripes on the right sleeve are for each 6 months in a combat zone.
He means the service stripes on the bottom sleeve of the green class A uniform. On the dress blue uniform the service stripe goes all around each sleeve. There are no combat hash marks on the dress blue uniform. Each stripe is for 3 years service. This is for the enlisted uniform only.
He means the service stripes on the bottom sleeve of the green class A uniform. On the dress blue uniform the service stripe goes all around each sleeve. There are no combat hash marks on the dress blue uniform. Each stripe is for 3 years service. This is for the enlisted uniform only.
I don’t think he is talking about rank. He is talking about the service stripes. You get one for every three years of active military service.
Damnit Loach.
My answer stands but I reread the OP and noticed he meant only the dress blue uniform. As I said on that one each stripe on the sleeve is for 3 years service. The only limit is for manditory retirement age (60). Generally you don’t see any more than ten which would put it up to the elbow. Officers don’t wear servic stripes.
You’re welcome 
Oh, those stripes. OK, then. 
The proper term for the “rank stripes” on the upper portion of the uniform sleeves are chevrons.
The stripes near the bottom of the sleeves are duration-of-service stripes.
I believe the slang term for these are called hatch marks, but that might just be for us Marines.
hash or hatch?
There is no manditory retirement age in the US Army. There are Retention Control Points (RCP’s). A person cannot remain in the Army beyond an RCP without achieving a higher rank, at which time there is a new RCP. An Army soldier can retire after 20 years of Active Duty. Guard and Reserve can retire after 20 also, but cannot draw retirement until he/she reaches 60 years of age. National Guard and reserve can generally serve until that time. I am not terribly clear about the RCP’s for them however.
Combat stripes, or hash marks are earned for every six calendar months spent in a combat zone.
Sgt Schwartz
In old photos you will see a third kind of Hash Mark. Now we have the slanted ones (for each year of service) the straight ones (for each six months in a combat area), in the WWI era we had chevrons for combat wounds.
Although the Purple Hear was established by George Washington, it went out of use for a long, long time. Modern soldiers get a PH in lieu of the wound chevron. Nobody on active duty today wears a wound chevron.
I’ve heard them referred to as ‘lifer stripes’.
There are also foreign service stripes, the compact rectangular ones, but only the Army uses them.
Flipping around the channels one night, I saw a few minutes of Good Morning, Vietnam with Robin Williams as Kronauer. A bad-ass sergeant stormed into the studio to give Kronauer a hard time. He leaned in and pointed to his chevrons, “Take a look here, soldier. Three up, three down. You know what that means?”
Kronauer: “The inning is over?”
Hash marks on a Navy uniform are for every four years’ service, not three. The stripes are red in color unless you have an unblemished record, in which case they become gold after twelve years. After four years of ‘good conduct’, a Navy enlisted person also is issued a Good Conduct ribbon. Each successive award is represented by adding a bronze-colored star to the ribbon. After 20 years, a silver star replaces all the bronze stars, signifying five awards.