I watched this recently but couldn't help but wonder why all of them wore rank and cap badges from their former regiments. They were a mercinary unit and not acting on behalf of the British government. I was a captain in the U.S. Army so my point-of-view is somewhat different. Maybe this was just for the movie but it's highly doubtful that a mercinary unit would actually do that!
shareI think its a movie easter egg. Tosh is wearing the SAS wings and dagger, yet in the beginning he sounds off to Falkner and makes it clear that both of them were in the regular Parachute Regiment together, with no mention of the SAS. However, actor Ian Yule who played Tosh actually did serve in the Special Air Service so it likely was a reference to that.
Faulkners cap badge is of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Again, Tosh says they served in the Paras together. However, Sir Richard Burton was, in fact, from Wales so I think its just a nod to the actor.
Rafers badge is The Royal Green Jackets, another example of not even being an airborne unit. But actor Richard Harris was an Irishman, so again, maybe a reference to his heritage?
Sean's badge looks like the Cheshire Regiment but the center doesnt look right. sir Roger Moore served in the Royal Navy so a connection is hard to make here.
Peter Coetzee's badge is a British Paras cap badge, rather than the South African Battalion one would think it would be. Actor Hardy Kruger was a teenage soldier in the Wehrmacht in WWII, so I guess it was a little hard to work that one in.
These reasons make sense as far as the Easter Egg theory goes. As I said, I highly doubt that any organized mercinary unit would bother with rank insignias and regimental cap badges. Stiil, kind of fun to watch the movie and see them wearing all of that.
shareA professional soldier wears his rank & badges because of their [rightful] distinctions. Especially badges of qualification (jump wings; ranger patch; scuba badge)- these were earned. As I went to the Desert as a forty-two year old private (E-4, Specialist; which I maintain is a BS rank) in '03, the only badge on my uniform I cared about was my parachutist wings. In a battalion of two-hundred, there were less than a dozen of us. My lieutenant admitted envying me of the jump wings (he was a good fellow).
In a unit as disparate as that in Wild Geese (or any special operations unit, especially soldier of fortune), the badges are very important - more than simple eye candy. This juxtaposes garrison ribbons.
I was not special operations, but served with and got to know a good many soldiers of such trade.
- JKHolman
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Thanks for all of the responses. I just find it strange that a mercenary unit would do such a thing. I served with the U.S. Army in Desert Storm. We removed all unit insignia and rank from our uniforms prior to combat. We knew who the officers and NCO's were. I would imagine that this mercenary unit did too.
shareWell, in the Congo, some of the ex-Legion guys wore the metro para badge, so, there is a precedent.
Part of the problem is this story is patterned after Mike Hoare and the 5 Commando, in the Congo, and those soldiers did wear rank insignia, especially Hoare. It wasn't totally standard, as discipline was never as professional as Hoare wanted people to believe, even by his own memoir. Those mercenaries, though, were hired by the Congolese government, rather than a private entity.
Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!
IT IS CALLED PRIDE YOU DUMB ASS NON MILITARY PUKE!
shareI have to agree. It’s a good for morale bad for mission kind of thing.
share