On 30 Aug 2016 at 21:49, Joseph Paul wrote:

> Fictional example - Branded - TV show starring Chuck Connors. Every
> episode opened with this - "his hat is pulled off, his epaulets are
> torn from his uniform, his buttons are pulled off, and his saber is
> broken, while a drum play"

The reason the remove the button, hat, epaulets, etc (as well as his
collar insignia) is because they all are clearly Army uniform parts.
The epaulets are rank insignia, and the hat, collar pin, buttons, etc
all have the crossed sabers of the Cavalry.

So they are removing all indications that he is "one of them".

Breaking the sword is a symbol of his dishonor. He no longer
qualifies as a "gentleman".

I'm kinda surprised they left the yellow stripes on his pants!

BTW, when they do this stuff in a ceremony, they've pre-weakened the
stitching on the epaulets, buttons, etc. That's so there won't be any
problem pulling them off.

Oh yeah, a lot of uniforms have the service or unit insignia on the
belt buckle. So they take the belt, too. Better hope your pants fit
well.

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com