Vietnamese military ranks and insignia
Because the shoulder insignia of all ranks are represented by an elongated pentagonal epaulette, they are, hence, either detailed or colour-coded to indicate rank, branch, as well as unit.
The shoulder epaulettes from those of enlisted soldiers to field officers are detailed with a silver crest with an encircled silver star. Those of generals and admirals have fully golden epaulettes with corresponding golden crests and encircled stars.
Ranks can show information about branches of military personnel.
Hem Colour of the ranks can show branches:
- Army (ground forces): red
- Air Force/ Air defence: azure
- Navy: dark-purple
- Border Defence: green
- Coast Guard: blue.
Army-Air Force-Navy ranks have background are yellow.
Border Defense Force's ranks have background is dark-green and hem colour is red.
Coast Guard's ranks have background is blue and hem colour is yellow.
Table of Ranks
|Level||Ranks||Translation||Ground Forces||Air Force/Air Defence||Navy||Border Guard||Coast Guard|
Sĩ quan cấp Tướng
(reserved by law for the Minister of National Defence and, on occasion, the Chief of the General Staff and the head of the General Political Department)
|General of the Army|
(usually held by the Chief of the General Staff, the head of the General Political Department, and deputy ministers of national defence)
|Senior Lieutenant General /
Phó Đô đốc
(usually held by military district commanders and political commissars, commandant and political commissar of the navy, commandant and political commissar of the air force, commandant and political commissar of the Border Defence Force)
|Lieutenant General /
Vice Admiral (Navy)
Chuẩn Đô đốc
|Major General /
Rear Admiral (Navy)
|Field Grade Officers
Sĩ quan cấp Tá
|Đại tá (four stars)||Colonel/
|Thượng tá (three stars)||Senior Lieutenant Colonel/
|Trung tá (two stars)||Lieutenant Colonel/
|Thiếu tá (one star)||Major/
Lieutenant Commander (Navy)
|Company Grade Officers
Sĩ quan cấp Úy
|Thượng úy||Senior Lieutenant/
Lieutenant junior grade (Navy)
|Thiếu úy||Junior Lieutenant/
Học viên Sĩ quan
|Học viên Sĩ quan||Officer Cadet|
Hạ sĩ quan
|Thượng sĩ||Sergeant major/ Master sergeant/
Chief petty officer (Navy)
Petty officer 1st class (Navy)
Petty officer 2nd class (Navy)
|Binh nhất||Private 1st class, Airman 1st class, Seaman 1st class|
|Binh nhì||Private, Airman, Seaman|
|Level||Ground Forces||Air Force||Navy||Border Defence||Coast Guard|
|Field Grade Officers
Company Grade Officers
- History of Vietnamese military ranks
- Comparative military ranks
- Military rank
- People's Army of Vietnam (Military of Vietnam)
- http://laws.dongnai.gov.vn/1991_to_2000/1999/199912/199912210006[permanent dead link]
- http://www.vanbanphapluat.com/danh-muc-van-ban-phap-luat.html?view=doc&id=83282[permanent dead link]