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Introduction
Every NCDCC event in my school, like parades, my cadets always ask me: how do I pin my badges? What is the order to pin them? Where do I pin them? Here, I’ll talk about the order of the badges for the proficiency and enrichment badges.
Badges order
Below is a picture of the common badges on your uniform, and the order to pin them:
To ensure the badge is upright and not slanted, the ‘D’ in ‘NCDCC’ at the bottom of each badge should be upright, as that’s around the center of the badge.
Missing badges
If you have missing badges, you should pin them in a reversed Z pattern, following the arrows. With this zigzag pattern, missing badges should shift in the direction of arrows.
So, if you have Fire Safety, CD Knowledge, First Aid, CPR/AED, FD, Rescue and Hazmat (like me), you’d pin it just like in the picture except without SANA, so the upper row would need to be centralised (i.e. the 3 badges in the 2nd row above the 3 gaps in the first row).
If you are missing any badges in the first row, say First Aid, then CPR/AED would shift to the left, and FD would come down. So it’ll look like this:
Second row: SANA, Rescue, Hazmat
First row: First Aid, CD Knowledge, First Aid, FD
Get it?
Order of enrichment badges
For your enrichment badges, they should be placed left to right (from front view facing you) in ascending order, so the most important badge goes to the right, and the least to the left. See the picture above for the most and least important enrichment badges.
Order of badges from most important to least important:
- Community Engagement (Gold) / Community Engagement (Basic)
- Precision Drill Squad [From competing in PDC]
- Psychological First Aid
- Life Saving [For water-related emergencies]
- Infection Control
- Cyber Security
- Adventure
- Campcraft
- Swimming
- Kayaking (2 Star) / Kayaking (1 Star)
- NAPFA (Gold) / NAPFA (Silver) / NAPFA (Bronze)
Conclusion
The NCDCC badges can be quite a pain to pin on. It usually takes around 30 minutes to get right each time (I like it perfect). Some badges, you’ll find, are not made very well, so the pin might be too far left/right of the back of the badges, so you’d need to pin it at a 45° angle for it to be upright. But anyway, now that you know how to pin your badges correctly, good luck!