United States Air ForceGeneralNathan Farragut Twining wearing the service dress hat with silver cloud and lightning bolt embellishments for a 4-star USAF general officer occupying the position of CSAF hatband embellishment is limited to the CSAF Disparities also exist at the OF-4 rank level with Navy commanders having one row of golden oak leaves whereas their Army and RAF counterparts (lieutenant colonel and wing commander) do not have any embellishments on their peaks.

However, the equivalent (but lower in precedence) Air Force rank of air commodore is classified as an air officer and hence has two rows of golden oak leaves. Specifically, as Navy commodores are not classified as flag officers and Army brigadiers are not general officers, they only have one row of golden oak leaves.

Specifically, flag officers, general officers, and air officers have two rows of golden oak leaves, while commodores, captains, and commanders (Royal Navy), brigadiers and colonels (Army), and group captains (RAF) have one row.Īmongst the one-star ranks there is disparity. In the British Armed Forces, and in the armed forces of several other Commonwealth countries, scrambled egg (singular) is a nickname for the gold braid (called an 'oak leaf sprig') on the peak of senior officers' peaked caps, and by extension a nickname for an officer.

General Sir Richard Dannatt wearing a service dress hat with gold oak leaf embellishments. Although the use of the term is principally military, some civilians (such as airline and merchant ship captains and (primarily in the United States) senior uniformed law enforcement officers) have similar embellishments on the peaks or visors of their hats. Exceptions include the French Navy and Italian armed forces, which use, respectively, embroideries or different varieties of chin straps on the officers' cap bands to indicate seniority. Today the 'scrambled eggs' emblem, in one form or another, has been adopted by the majority of the world's navies. The phrase is derived from the resemblance that the emblems have to scrambled eggs, particularly when the embellishments are gold in color. Scrambled eggs (American English) or scrambled egg (British English) is a slang term for the typically leaf-shaped embellishments found on the visors of peaked caps worn by militaryofficers and (by metonymy) for the senior officers who wear them.

Dutch Admiral Helfrich with British Air Marshal Brooke-Popham both wearing peaked caps with embellishments

Scrambled egg mesh cap