Alaska Trooper Insignia - Alaska Police Insignia - Alaska Police Badges - Alaska Police Patches and uniform items        


Page 2 --- the dress uniform or tunic of the Alaska State Troopers



The AST has a close working relationship with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as they share a long border (1, 538 miles -- or 2,475 kilometers) and often interact with each other.


I'm unsure exactly how often Members of the RCMP wear their red tunics, but I have heard it is not as often as tourists would like!  I am also unaware of just how often AST Members wear their dress uniforms, but I'll bet it isn't all that often.


Because of the similarity in the RCMP and AST tunics, comparisons will be made for some of the photos and explanations below.




ABOVE -- a comparison between the tunics used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on the Left and the AST on the Right.  Note that both of these tunics are for the rank of sergeant.


I believe that the AST dress uniform/tunic was designed to look similar to the famous RCMP red tunic. The AST dress uniform is light blue with dark blue on the cuffs and pocket flaps, with red trim. Still seeking one of these AST tunics.


In the RCMP, tunics for officer ranks are a bit different; one is pictured below. 


It's very difficult to tell, but on the sleeves of the red RCMP tunic, the sleeve design resembles the pointed dark blue cuff design of the AST tunic.  The red tunic sleeves may look like just straight sleeves in the pic, but there is a design stitched into them which comes to a point a few inches from the ends of the cuffs - about where the point of the cuff is located on the blue AST tunic -- see the picture just below.




ABOVE -- the right sleeve of the RCMP tunic -- I played with the contrast a bit -- you can see the design stitching start just above the buttons, curving up to almost a point where the black arrow is.  The stitching then goes down in the same pattern toward the other side of the sleeve.  If the cuff were a different color, it would closely resemble the pointed cuffs of the AST tunic.  You just don't notice it because the whole sleeve is red including this design.  But see the RCMP officer's tunic just below.



ABOVE -- RCMP officer's tunic - now you can better see the cuff design of the RCMP tunic because the officers' cuffs are blue instead of red.  The officers' collars are also all blue.



In the RCMP, the Non-Commissioned Officer Members wear 5 year service stars on the upper left sleeve.  RCMP Officer ranks do not wear these stars.


The AST wears their 5 years of service stars on the lower left sleeve.



ABOVE - a current 5 year service star worn on the tunic



ABOVE -- old style 5 year service stars worn on the tunic


ABOVE - a closeup of the old style 5 year service star previously worn on the tunic


 

 

The “fuzzy” stars were issued for the tunic and long sleeve shirts up until about 1998-2000.  The newer stars are said to be much better for wear, as the blue felt backing on the older version went “fuzzy” after a few washes and looked very sloppy.

 


The older AST dress uniforms/tunics have a pointed cuff as pictured, while the newer ones have the square Marine Corps pattern -- see a pic below. The latest version has a blend of both styles, just to make it confusing.




ABOVE -- Here is a pic of the trooper and sergeant chevrons used only on the dress uniform.


Note that there is a similar set of chevrons for the rank of corporal - used only at the training academy.  STILL NEED the corporal chevrons.  ALSO NEED the corporal chevrons used on the shirts, which are a different style.


Most troopers who get promoted bypass the corporal rank and go from Trooper to Sergeant.


The RCMP does not have a single chevron for the Constable rank. It uses chevrons for corporal, sergeant, staff sergeant and sergeant major.  The RCMP ranks of sergeant and sergeant major also use a crown on top of the chevrons.




ABOVE --  The yellow banner patch that has the AST motto, Loyalty, Integrity and Courage, is worn on the right sleeve of the dress uniform. Because the blue cuffs on the dress uniform can be more than one design, the exact placement of this yellow banner differs according to what style of cuff is on the sleeve. If the sleeve has pointed cuffs, the yellow banner is placed just above the point of the cuff. If the sleeve has the newer square cuff, then the banner is placed on the shoulder.  You can see part of this banner worn in the picture at the top of this page just above the right cuff, and at the top of the right shoulder in the picture just below.


This banner is also seen on the older style door decals, above the badge logo.  An example of this is on Page 6 Badges.



ABOVE -- Note the dark blue cuff - this is the newer style Marine Corps straight cuff.  Quite a contrast to the pointed cuff seen in the picture at the top of this page.


 

ABOVE - a tunic button - says, The Seal of the State of Alaska


In the RCMP, NCO Members who shoot a high enough score wear a Marksmanship patch of crossed weapons on the lower left sleeve. If they shoot a perfect score, the crossed weapons have a crown on top. There are RCMP Marksmanship patches (called badges in Canada) of crossed rifles, crossed revolvers (no longer used but the insignia lives on) and crossed semi automatic pistols.  In the picture at the top of this page, the RCMP tunic has 2 of these badges on the lower left sleeve.


The AST has a patch to denote pistol marksmanship, and it is pictured on Page 3 - Patches.  It is worn on the cuff of the right sleeve. 




ABOVE -- on the LEFT is the collar insignia worn on the RCMP tunic.  On the RIGHT is the collar insignia worn on the AST tunic. 


At the top of the AST collar badges are the words, Loyalty, Integrity and Courage.  The AST collar badge has the manufacturer's name (the hallmark) on the back.





ABOVE -- a closeup of a collar badge as worn on the tunic, and the pin with crossed rifles is the SERT pin - described and pictured on Page 4.



ABOVE & BELOW -- here are pics of a pair of dress boots worn by members of the Honor Guard.  These boots are quite a few years old, so I don't know whether they are the current style.  They are all black.


 




ABOVE - a comparison pic for you --

RCMP on the left and AST on the right.
 

 


 

BELOW - you can click on a link to go to another page - you are now on Page 2.