I am not sure what you are referring to on the right sleeve, but I am going to assume that you are talking about the cuff area.

The angle of the shot is deceiving to an extent. The officer’s stripes that appear to be one are actually two gold stripes separated by a stripe of blue. The angle of the shot makes it look like it is one large stripe.

Uniforms for enlisted men and women have one gold stripe on their sleeves.

I am also going to assume the “something above it” are the little hash marks. They are “overseas service bars.” In the shortest description, they are awarded for every 6 continuous months of service spent out of the continental US and in a designated combat zone.

(You are welcome for the clarification. I am sure that cadets would hate the thought of being identified as midshipmen and vice versa.)

I thought that looked like the Army uniform. However, I looked at my old dress blues (now the class A uniform?) and there is one difference between them and the officer in the picture. On the right sleeve, mine only has two stripes. The officer’s uniform looks like it has one stripe and something above it. It is for that reason I did not think it was an Army uniform.

Thanks for the clarification.

West Point does not graduate Army officers in Navy white.

However, West Point does have a summer uniform with white shirts and grey pants. If you blow up the image, you can see the grey pants on some cadets. Annapolis does not have grey pants for summer uniforms.

Navy covers have a black band above the gold braiding and for underclassman, the “anchor” sits in an oval of black as part of that band. Army covers have no such band. In addition, Army covers have a gold shield and eagle which is also seen when the image is blown up.

USNA uniforms can be seen here: http://ysfine.com/wdc/usna18.jpg

USMA uniforms can be seen here: http://www.west-point.org/parent/plebe-net/uniforms.html (see “grey over white.)

The officer appears to be in the Army class A uniform with the blue shoulder cord designating he is from infantry. The uniform can be seen at the most reliable site in the world, Wikipedia, See upper right, middle image. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Service_Uniform

The men and women in the image are from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

What branch is the officer in front from? It does not look Army or Marine. Is it a Navy dress uniform? (I did not see many Naval officers in dress uniform during my Army days).

Good point.

However, feasibly it could be accurate. The caption for the picture does read: “Underclassmen attend a commencement ceremony at the United States Military Academy at West Point.” It did not state that they were Army underclassmen. There could be Navy underclassmen who made the trip from Annapolis.

But, I doubt it. It is more likely that the picture is not from West Point. It is definite that the students are not West Point cadets.

The whole article was an excuse to develop the CLOACA acronym, which “Professor” Bradford must have amused himself mightily with.