Does everyone need something "shiny" to make themselves stick out from other branches/services?

Unit pride, esprit de corps, healthy competition.

On top of that I'm JAG so no shiny things for me. Unless I get lucky and a request to go Airborne or Air Assault somehow happens.

The one thing that made sense to me was my red hat. It wasn't really effective for shamming though.

Well, to quote Napoléon Bonaparte " “Give me enough medals and I’ll win you any war”
Recognition for doing a good job or act at is beyond what is normally expected is a pretty cheap way to maintain morale and discipline. Every culture I can think of had distinctive uniforms or headgear, my god, just look at Napoleonic era troops. I think we are pretty subdued and subtle about these days.

I guess I am weird about it. I never much cared about uniform flair. For me just having a job was enough. It sure beat living out of my car. All of my shiny trinkets are not so shiny anymore and are collecting dust in a box sitting in my closet. The most shine I get out of them is them being listed on my resume as the government looks at such things for hiring actions.

It the Corps, we had very little "Bling". Just standard uniform brass and service ribbons / devices. Most of out stuff is flat black. But, when you have a uniform like out Dress Blues, what else do you need ? That and our military bearing pretty much says it all.

I was in airborne unit once in my career. It was simple. No wings, you were a leg. Didnt matter to me, not many were lucky enough to get airborne training

Why not, it used to be a magnet long long time ago, but now, not so much, all those purty wibbons and medels hanging on ones chest... the patch on our right sleeve proudly screaming lookey where I was...

I believe that it is professionally “healthy” to set yourself apart from other MOSs. I helps to create commeradi and pride in doing what you do.
In the end we are all in the fight together, no matter what MOS or specialty that you have and no matter what branch of service that you are in. The only people that I have ever met that talk crap about other branches is new service members that have never served a combat deployment, actually being shot at and shooting the enemy. In my career, I servered in combat with every branch and I was glad to have them standing beside me sending rounds down range.

Badges (schools really) don’t make soldiers better than other soldiers it just makes THEM better soldiers - or more qualified at a particular skill. And the paratroopers and legs definitely need to be separated from each other......the legs need to exit the aircraft first because they get to the ground faster!

I'm late getting in on this one and I know I'll catch some hell for saying it but I really liked the
"old school" Army Military Police class A duty uniform. The MP white hat worn with the summer
khakis or winter greens with that patent leather gear with those highly polished black boots made
a on duty MP stand out from anyone else in the room. I was told the Army retired the MP duty
white hat sometime in the 1980's. The MP white hat should be brought back for wear with the
class A uniform.