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I found a dress uniform belonging to a second lieutenant of the air force of the National People's Army of East Germany, manufactured in 1981. The rank boards on the shoulders are missing their gold pins, but it's still identifiable as a second lieutenant because only they had the combinantion of blue piping and a silver board. Other than that, it's in perfect condition.

Seriously, at some point I will just start going to random thrift shops and look for gems like that...
at some point being after I am done with college and am actually earning money.

I usually visit any thrift stores I find to see if I can get my hands on something like that.

Daynel wrote:I usually visit any thrift stores I find to see if I can get my hands on something like that.

This has nothing to do with the thread but...
The fact that you play on miller and basically the rest of us play on emerald makes me sad.

I got my dad a USSR Major's greatcoat for christmas, but I guess those are a bit more abundant.

cannonfodder wrote:I got my dad a USSR Major's greatcoat for christmas, but I guess those are a bit more abundant.

I suspect these are pretty common. No idea about this specific service/rank combination, of course, but the NVA had a couple hundred thousand members in 1990 and all that stuff had to be disposed of. I paid $36.50 for this, and I don't think it's worth more than that. It's cool, though, and it fits me (at least well enough not to look weird), so I'd call it a solid find.

LJS, I just got you some great news: as I was trying to figure out how big the NVA was, I found that "blue piping on a silver board" is not a Second Lieutenant. It's actually a full regular Lieutenant.

from a site specializing in the subject

Wikipedia says that blue piping is a full leutnant, but there's no source. The page the uploader linked to is a 403.

It seems I need to visit thrist stores more often, if uniforms and such are there.

okay so this is a thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corps_colours_%28NPA%29
I got suspicious at the colours and the labeling because every other colour had another thing associated with it, and it is effectively the same system we use in Austria.
Turns out that with the actual insignia missing, it could be anything from a Second Lieutenant to a Captain.

Ivan2006 wrote: Turns out that with the actual insignia missing, it could be anything from a Second Lieutenant to a Captain.

That was what I found originally, based on the plates sewn into the collar. Looking at the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranks_of_t ... e%27s_Army I decided it was probably a second lieutenant, as that was the only one there that was blue as well. Looking at that again, though, it's probably just random that that particular one happens to be the air force one; you're likely correct that it could be any of those lower ranks.

If it's useful, these are the exact markings it has, with the addition of rank pins:

Note the extra leaf-thing on the collar; many of the uniforms seem to only have the upper symbol.

cannonfodder wrote: Wikipedia says that blue piping is a full leutnant, but there's no source. The page the uploader linked to is a 403.

Blue piping in this instance means it's Air Force as opposed to Army, Navy, or Border Patrol. Pretty much everything I've seen has been consistent on that.

Well, one pin is an unterleutnant, two is a full leutnant, three is an oberleutnant (I find this weird, US doesn't have anything analogous to), and four is a hauptmann, or captain.

Judging by that I think it'd be fair to say it's an air force captain. The collar is probably only designating branch for a field grade officer.

cannonfodder wrote:Well, one pin is an unterleutnant, two is a full leutnant, three is an oberleutnant (I find this weird, US doesn't have anything analogous to), and four is a hauptmann, or captain.

Judging by that I think it'd be fair to say it's an air force captain. The collar is probably only designating branch for a field grade officer.

This picture is clearly of a captain. If the extra silver thing (it isn't actually a pin, just some kind of metal thing) on the collar indicates a higher rank, mine probably is too. The issue is that I haven't found a source that mentions the extra silver thing, and as I haven't got the pins on the shoulder boards, and I can't spot any holes where they might have been removed, which would let me count how many there were, I don't know how to narrow it down further than 'either captain or some grade of lieutenant'.

I don't know that it's really necessary, though. I'm pretty satisfied with 'low-ranked commissioned Air Force officer'. That's specific enough for me.

Tell wrote:

Daynel wrote:I usually visit any thrift stores I find to see if I can get my hands on something like that.

This has nothing to do with the thread but...
The fact that you play on miller and basically the rest of us play on emerald makes me sad.

Well I am European, all other servers had like 400+ ping.

Well you all got some fancy uniforms out there , mine has nothing but holes in it :P .