Rank and what else?
Is the only purpose to show the rank of the Trooper? So why don't all stormtroopers have them? And how do other stormtroopers know or show their rank? And why do they use such a big thing just for showing their rank? Why don't they, for example, paint their armor? Or, like in real-world armies, use smaller things? Ehat else can you do with a Pauldron?--TeakHoken91.7.18.107 10:44, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
- Pauldron's are used to signify Rank, Allegiance, Military Division, Squad, Platoon, Power, Skill, Seniority (not rank), medals etc. -- Awar 15:19, 22 April 2007 (UTC).
- Why should only high ranked soldiers have an extra piece of armor? Because they are worse than lower ranked soldiers and need extra protection? Because the enemy can easily spot the squad-leader and concentrate his fire?--TeakHoken91.7.20.85 15:23, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
- Ok here I go, A Pauldron is a form of protective shoulder armour or padding that can be used to siginfy Rank, Milita Organization (Marines, Paratroopers etc), Alligeance (America, Australia etc).
- Why give this extra armour to a certain groups? Well this can be done for several reasons:
- To help provide extra protection in heavy combat situations.
- To help signify rank and or postion, especialy in combat.
- As a kind of reward like what is done with medals.
- Help protect them from weather. -- Awar 16:18, 2 May 2007 (UTC).
- And why only protect one shoulder? And how should a piece of...leather, I think, be more protective than plasteel (or whatever the material of stormtrooper armor "is")?--TeakHoken91.7.40.167 16:16, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
- Actualy they cover both shoulders, just in stawars they cover on side more thanh the other but both shoulders are covered. -- Awar 17:23, 4 May 2007 (UTC).
- Sure, sure. But whether they have a logical purpose in real life or not doesn't give much sense to them in starwars.--TeakHoken91.7.73.94 09:11, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
- Well the english the germans and several other european countrys still use them to some extent in there Current Militry, so why in Star Wars would they not use them!
- Really? I had to serve in German army because of the dammed system of forcing free young men to learn killing. And I don't know what you are talking about. I've never seen something like this there. And besides: I want to know how a Pauldron can improve a Stormtrooper armor?--TeakHoken91.7.42.101 21:38, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
- Now, now, lets keep civilized. Whilst it is true that the pauldron does not offer any protection at all (no source states it, and the material as well as the limited coverage are obviously not sufficient), it does serve to display the rank. Why it only appears on sandtroopers is a good question, though. Maybe the pauldrons are just there so that the civilians and the planetary security personell know who they are talking to? After all, the other stormtroopers we see in the movies don't serve as a police force like the troopers on Tatooine... As for the German army - it's true that it does not use real pauldrons, but some units (usually those operating on foreign territory) do have some sort of "semi-pauldron": it does not really cover the shoulder, only the upper arm, but it double-serves both as a rank-insignia and unit/division identification, and is also displaying the country's flag. --Tulon 02:00, 28 May 2007
- Thank you Tulon! -- Awar 13:57, 28 May 2007 (UTC).
- So do we finally agree that there is no conclusive explanation for pauldrons?--TeakHoken91.7.45.6 18:58, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
- It depends on the individual POV! -- Awar 19:36, 6 June 2007 (UTC).
- Rank and what else? Simple - nothing else. The pauldron has no more protective purpose than does a set of cloth Sergeant chevrons, or a flag, or a marksman award, worn on a real-world soldier's sleeve. Remember, they are worn over the armour, they do not replace the shoulder armour. Why do they wear them, when it seems to be the general view that the Stormtrooper helmet has a visual display that gives rank information? Who knows? We can only guess. The obvious guess would be that it is to signify rank to others (something the regular Stormtroopers don't want). Why would they want to do this? Perhaps, as others have suggested, they operate frequently in garrison or police roles, and need to distinguish rank to the public. Or perhaps they regularly support regular Imperial Army troopers who might not have helmets that provide rank information. Note that the list on the page we're discussing also implies they distinguish not only rank but specialist roles as well.
--Matga Grebun 04:17, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
- Rank and what else? Simple - nothing else. The pauldron has no more protective purpose than does a set of cloth Sergeant chevrons, or a flag, or a marksman award, worn on a real-world soldier's sleeve. Remember, they are worn over the armour, they do not replace the shoulder armour. Why do they wear them, when it seems to be the general view that the Stormtrooper helmet has a visual display that gives rank information? Who knows? We can only guess. The obvious guess would be that it is to signify rank to others (something the regular Stormtroopers don't want). Why would they want to do this? Perhaps, as others have suggested, they operate frequently in garrison or police roles, and need to distinguish rank to the public. Or perhaps they regularly support regular Imperial Army troopers who might not have helmets that provide rank information. Note that the list on the page we're discussing also implies they distinguish not only rank but specialist roles as well.
- It depends on the individual POV! -- Awar 19:36, 6 June 2007 (UTC).
- So do we finally agree that there is no conclusive explanation for pauldrons?--TeakHoken91.7.45.6 18:58, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
- Thank you Tulon! -- Awar 13:57, 28 May 2007 (UTC).
- Now, now, lets keep civilized. Whilst it is true that the pauldron does not offer any protection at all (no source states it, and the material as well as the limited coverage are obviously not sufficient), it does serve to display the rank. Why it only appears on sandtroopers is a good question, though. Maybe the pauldrons are just there so that the civilians and the planetary security personell know who they are talking to? After all, the other stormtroopers we see in the movies don't serve as a police force like the troopers on Tatooine... As for the German army - it's true that it does not use real pauldrons, but some units (usually those operating on foreign territory) do have some sort of "semi-pauldron": it does not really cover the shoulder, only the upper arm, but it double-serves both as a rank-insignia and unit/division identification, and is also displaying the country's flag. --Tulon 02:00, 28 May 2007
- Really? I had to serve in German army because of the dammed system of forcing free young men to learn killing. And I don't know what you are talking about. I've never seen something like this there. And besides: I want to know how a Pauldron can improve a Stormtrooper armor?--TeakHoken91.7.42.101 21:38, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
- Well the english the germans and several other european countrys still use them to some extent in there Current Militry, so why in Star Wars would they not use them!
- Sure, sure. But whether they have a logical purpose in real life or not doesn't give much sense to them in starwars.--TeakHoken91.7.73.94 09:11, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
- Actualy they cover both shoulders, just in stawars they cover on side more thanh the other but both shoulders are covered. -- Awar 17:23, 4 May 2007 (UTC).
- And why only protect one shoulder? And how should a piece of...leather, I think, be more protective than plasteel (or whatever the material of stormtrooper armor "is")?--TeakHoken91.7.40.167 16:16, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
- Ok here I go, A Pauldron is a form of protective shoulder armour or padding that can be used to siginfy Rank, Milita Organization (Marines, Paratroopers etc), Alligeance (America, Australia etc).
- Why should only high ranked soldiers have an extra piece of armor? Because they are worse than lower ranked soldiers and need extra protection? Because the enemy can easily spot the squad-leader and concentrate his fire?--TeakHoken91.7.20.85 15:23, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
- I just wanted to post a couple of pictures of real-life pauldrons. And also answer the posted question "Why only wear one pauldron???". In real life, warriors can/could think of wearing only one pauldron or a set of asymmetric pauldrons because: 1: A wish for extra movement and flexibility in the arm holding the hack/slash weapon. 2: A wish for ektra protection on the arm and shoulder NOT holding a weapon. But this is obviously not the reason for stormtroopers to wear pauldrons. They wear it on the right shoulder. Same shoulder as the weapon. As they also are padded, they could maybe function as recoil dampeners? Apart of being visual rank insignias of course.--Davidvcsandersen (talk) 22:47, March 25, 2014 (UTC)
Modern Kevlar Armor. Medieval Armor 1. Medieval Armor 2. Roman gladiator armor.
Squad Leader
What's the difference between a squad leader and a sergeant? I thought sub officers assigned both of these desginations led a squad.
- It is my understanding that the orange pauldron is worn by a Stormtrooper Officer, so the designation "Squad Leader" does indeed sound misleading if you're following the standard Imperial Army structure (which I believe, for "standard" units anyway, the Stormtrooper Corps also follows pretty similarly).
Squads are led by a Non-Commissioned Officer, specifically a Sergeant (white pauldron), with a Corporal, or Brevet-Corporal (temporary position), plus however many "standard" troopers make up the rest of the squad.
To me it would make sense for the Corporal to wear the black pauldron and standard troopers to wear none, but according to official sources the black pauldron is worn by all Enlisted Ranks of Sandtroopers (other than Sergeants and specialists, who have the colour breakdown listed in the article we're discussing). In that case I am unaware what would distinguish a Corporal from the rest.
I therefore take the designation "Squad Leader" to actually mean "Platoon Leader" (a Platoon is usually made up of four Squads), meaning the trooper with the orange pauldron is a Commissioned Officer, specifically a Lieutenant. I'm unaware if higher ranked Stormtrooper Officers would also wear the orange pauldron, or different coloured pauldrons on the Battle-Dress Uniform (if they wear the BDU at all, otherwise they would simply have the black uniform with rank squares).
Another explanation could be that the Sandtroopers have a different organisational structure to the Stormtroopers, whereby a Platoon is called a Squadron (meaning the squad-level units could be called Elements or Sections perhaps). I believe this is how some special-force units in the real-world militaries operate (I think the SAS use this structure). So to break it down, if this is the case, a Lieutenant (orange-pauldron) leads a Squadron, with Sergeants (white-pauldron) leading smaller units of Elements or Sections.
Just my two-bob (and my first discussion here on the boards, so I hope I've done it right).
--Matga Grebun 03:51, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
Senate Guards?
I don't ever recall Senate security wearing a pauldron, and the example picture shows an enlarged shoulder plate, not pauldron. What source (other than The Clone Wars, as I've seen them all and saw no pauldron) is there that has a Senate Guard/Commando wearing a pauldron? —May the Force be with you, and may Darkness follow you. Agent K Oh. I'm the Doctor, by the way. 19:13, March 24, 2014 (UTC)
Blue Pauldron - Where does it come from?
I just wanted to ask if anybody can tell me, where blue pauldrons (Sniper) appear on stormtrooper shoulders - i need a source for this as costume reference... --87.163.189.194 19:25, June 17, 2014 (UTC)
- This probably isn't the best source, but in the iOS game Assault Team, Stormtrooper snipers wear a blue pauldron. I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere, too, but I can't remember where. —May the Force be with you, and may Darkness follow you. Oh. I'm the Doctor, by the way. 19:37, June 17, 2014 (UTC)
- Stormtropper "Snipers" wear blue pauldrons in Star Wars Galaxies. At least the stormtroopers that players cant "buy" for fraction points. I think that is the primary source. --212.242.126.216 08:30, June 18, 2014 (UTC)