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A brassard is a roughly triangular piece of fabric designed to be worn around the upper arm, held in place by a shoulder strap on the clothing underneath. It is used as an item of military uniform to which badges of rank (or other insignia) may be attached, instead of to the actual clothing.
It is frequently used by (child) cadets, since not only is clothing exchanged between individuals more often (as they leave or join the organisation, or as they grow) but a cadet's progress through the rank structure is also far more rapid than in the regular forces (compressing a twenty-year ascent from Pte/Cdt to WO1 into four years). If brassards were not used, each promotion or visit to the stores would involve a lot of unpicking and possibly re-sewing. However. brassards are issued and used in regular forces as well, for example by mechanics who can "take their rank with them" between changes of coveralls.
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