Red Legs?
 

Hey,

Can someone explain why US artillery is sometimes referred to as "red legs"?

thanks

I dont know but I think it originally started in the Civil War.....?

your last sig about the 13 colonies and Sgt Muldoon??

Red is the traditional color of the artillery branch, back to at least Colonial times. During the 19th century, enlisted men wore a stripe on their uniform pants of their branch color. Hence, artillerymen had a red stripe on their trousers, or red legs!

I don't know where the colors started, but when an officer is in his dress blues (In the Army), the stripe down his trousers is red. Every branch has its own stripe color. (Infantry is blue.)

No it was somehting else that was in bad taste on my part.

Chico's got the answer. Red was designated, at least during the American Civil War, the color of the Artillery branch. I believe it may have even been that way back during the War of 1812, but I'm not 100% sure of that. As he said, the uniforms of the artilleryman bore a red stripe down the pants legs. Thus the nickname "red legs".

For the sake of completeness...
 

Red stripe = artillery
blue = infantry
yellow = cavalry, featured in the John Wayne flick "She wore a yellow ribbon."

When Armor formed, not quite as a branch pre-WW2, their unit/division patches and insignia became a triangle with each of the three colors.

And for more completeness, anyone who's not airborne is a "nasty leg." :rolleyes:

HEY!!! I represent that fact! :D

while Paul is correct...

I just referred to anyone not airborne qualified as "Leg" in a very depreciatory manner.

As an ex baby bootie all I can say is there's only two things come from the sky.....

Airborne troops are the smelly bits between my APC's treads......can you say "CRUNCHIE"....I think you can:tank::)

P.S. we are DIRTY NASTY LEGS and damned proud too!:p

I'd have to say that Jimmi Hendrix was the greatest airborne-qualified guitarist that ever lived...