Do Senior Members without Grade wear epaulets on the corporate aviator shirt?

[supertigerCH]

Perhaps I can stand to be corrected, but as far as I know... no branch of the U.S. military does this (and although CAP is not the military...  even our "patron service" the Air Force... whom our uniforms are supposed to emulate... does not do anything like this "empty epaulet " on their uniforms -- even with officer candidates). 

West Point does this with their freshmen. They have completely blank shoulder marks until they become recognized right before sophomore year.

Good example HGjunkie  ( [if it's true that West Point new cadets do this]... in showing that at least some organization out there might be doing this)

I was referring more to officer candidates (OCS)... who have already begun their active service obligation... rather than cadets (of which there are many types, varieties, and organizations) -- who have not yet actually begun theirs.

good picture of showing that there might be others somewhere in the world who have fallen into this funny practice, which still seems to serve no purpose. 

Thanks for making this good point and for sharing / bringing this to light, my friend...

[Storm Chaser]

When you consider that senior members without grade used to wear metal CAP cutouts on the collar of their service shirt, then the empty epaulets don't seem like such a bad idea. Now that there's a differentiation between those  pursuing officer grades and those pursuing NCO grades, it makes even more sense. The only real argument against them is the potential promotion after six months, but that was the same issue with the CAP cutouts. And the metal cutouts left holes on the shirt.