(This page revised May 12, 2017)
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| Soldiers will ensure that articles carried in pockets do not protrude from the pocket or present a bulky appearance. |
| — U.S. Army Regulation AR670-1, paragraph 1-9a(1) |
The requirements of the United States Army regulation quoted above were responsible for the development of pens with so-called “military” or “soldier” clips. Many collectors, not familiar with this regulation, assume that any pen with a clip or cap shaped a certain way is a “military” pen with a “military clip.” When we break down the regulation and its implications, however, we see that only certain pens make the cut — even Sheaffer’s very compact Tuckaway might cause trouble between a soldier and his commanding officer. (I became intimately familiar with the regulation in 1965, when I was gigged for “Uniform, out of, one particular” for carrying my new Sheaffer Lifetime Imperial.)
Even before the regulation was codified, its requirements were enforced by tradition, as explained by an early edition of the Officer’s Guide (published by the Stackpole Company):
By longstanding custom of the Service, it is considered poor taste to permit fountain pens, pencils, or other items to protrude from the pocket of coat or shirt. Pockets should never be bulging with surplus articles.
Before and during World War I, most pens were clipless or had their clips mounted low on the cap. Shown here are two eyedropper-filling pens, a Beaumel from about 1910 and a Mabie Todd Swan from 1918:
The Swan is a “trench pen” designed and marketed for use by soldiers in the field, but it does not meet the requirements and (like the clipless Beaumel) would have to be dropped into a pocket or carried in the soldier’s kit.
Among the very few pens that could be clipped in a soldier’s pocket were the Jack-Knife Safety models produced by the George S. Parker Company beginning in 1916. Parker’s patented washer clip allows the pen to be concealed by the pocket flap:
In line with the tradition described by the Officer’s Guide, the regulation is officially interpreted to mean that a pen carried in a soldier’s breast pocket may not be visible or, by its bulk, cause a visible disturbance of the pocket’s profile. Here is a drawing of a World War II-period winter uniform shirt’s pocket. Including the flap, the pocket measures 7" (17.8 cm) in height:
A purchaser can answer the first requirement, that the pen not protrude from under the edge of the pocket flap, by choosing a pen with a relatively short clip. To illustrate this point, here are a Parker “51” and a Moore Finger tip:
Let us place each of these pens into the pocket shown above. Here, with the pockets in phantom so that you can see the pens, is what happens:
When the pen is positioned as shown, the Finger tip’s clip is too long to conform to the regulation, and the Finger tip is for this reason not permissible. But the “51” clip disappears under the flap, and thousands of military personnel — including General Dwight D. Eisenhower — carried the “51” with them into war.
The second requirement is that the pen not present a bulky appearance. Clip location, not clip length, is the controlling factor in meeting this requirement. Many pens with clips as short as that of the “51”, or even shorter yet, fail to conform to the regulation because their clips are mounted low on the cap. A low-mounted clip, as illustrated to the right by a Sheaffer Balance, causes the pocket flap to bulge upward, in some cases to a dramatic degree:
Pushing the pen down in the pocket so that it won’t bulge the flap has the opposite effect, dragging the pocket’s hem downward so that the pocket itself becomes rumpled.
The solution to this problem is illustrated by the first pen depicted, the Parker “51”. The clip on the “51” (illustrated more clearly to the right) is mounted high on the cap so that the pen does not extend high enough to interfere with the pocket flap. Except on a few very inexpensive models such as the Parkette, all Parker fountain pen clips from 1916 until the 21st century were mounted high enough to satisfy the regulation.
When the world mobilized for war in the 1930s, many pen companies responded to the hugely increased need for pens that would conform to military regulations. Among these was Waterman. Long known for its low-mounted riveted clip and only recently having changed to tab-secured clips similar to Sheaffer’s, Waterman redesigned its entire line once again, beginning in 1940 with the second-year version of the Hundred Year Pen, to feature a conformant high-mounted clip. Illustrated here is a second-year Hundred Year Pen:
Ironically, Waterman had unintentionally created a very good military clip in 1930 — but the pen, the Lady Patricia, was marketed, as its name indicates, for women only:
Chief among other companies whose pens were in conformance was Esterbrook, whose budget-priced Re-New-Point fountain pens appeared in about 1932. Shown below are a Dollar Pen from shortly before World War II and a Model J from 1944:
But other manufacturers, including Waterman’s first-tier competitors Sheaffer and Wahl, had long been selling pens with their clips low on the cap. Here are a Sheaffer Balance and an Eversharp Doric, both from the latter half of the 1930s:
Wahl had recognized the need for a “military” pen earlier than Waterman. Beginning in the latter half of the 1920s and continuing into the 1930s, the company produced pens with “soldier” clips, such as the Gold Seal Personal-Point and Doric shown here, alongside its regular models:
But Sheaffer came late to the game; not until 1941 did the Fort Madison giant begin making conformant pens. Taking one’s time, however, can produce some truly elegant results, and Sheaffer’s military clip (U.S. Patent No D123,485), used on Balance models, is an inspired piece of design. By extending the clip and wrapping it over the top of the cap so that it mounts on the back side, Sheaffer maintained the streamlined look that had characterized the Balance since its inception a little over a decade earlier. The new clip, because it is not attached to the front of the cap at all, allows the pen to sit lower in the pocket than any competing design. To indicate that its products conformed to military requirements, Sheaffer began affixing to the inside of its box covers the paper sticker shown to the right. Here is a Valiant, the largest Lifetime model in Sheaffer’s military-clip line:
The Valiant was a full-length, standard-girth pen priced at $10.00. Its slender Lifetime companion was the Vigilant, with an $8.75 price tag. Non-Lifetime versions were the Defender (standard girth, $5.00) and the Commandant (slender, $4.00).
Here is the Valiant in the pocket:
Because of the dual requirement of the regulation, some pens that might be thought military in style are in fact not conformant. Foremost among these is Sheaffer’s Tuckaway:
Online auction sellers frequently describe the ”Tucky” as having a military clip. The pen’s clip is tiny, but it is mounted low enough that it just pushes the pocket flap upward:
Pushing the pen down in the pocket might work, if your sergeant is less than observant, but don’t count on it!
Another pen that some people assume to be conformant is the Morrison Patriot. At the time of this writing, one reputable Internet dealer was offering a Patriot with the following description:
The “Patriot”A 1942 Military Fountain Pen manufactured by the Morrison Pen Company… This fountain pen was made specifically to comply with the requirements of the United States Army…
The Patriot, peculiar to the World War II period and produced in appropriately colored versions for the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Army Air Forces (olive drab), and Navy (navy blue), might be military in appearance, but it does not pass the “pocket test.” The low-mounted clip immediately identifies the Patriot as a pen that “talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk”:
In fact, the Patriot was marketed to the general public in a leather case with a matching pencil, for $6.25 (imprinted on the pen’s barrel) plus a wartime tax of $1.25. Advertising frequently suggested that the Patriot would be an ideal gift for a serviceman abroad.
The end of World War II brought an era of unprecedented prosperity. Sheaffer had already discontinued its short-lived production of military-clip pens (the last of the Balances) in 1942, and with their disappearance the term “military clip” seems to have disappeared from the lexicon of the pen industry. Perhaps it was unneeded in the first place, as most military personnel could keep their pens in their duffel bags or seabags. Morrison, having recognized this fact, provided leather carrying cases for its Patriot sets.
Today, in this age of ballpoints and gel pens, the Army’s battledress uniform (BDU) has pockets more than capacious enough to conceal pens dropped in. And, as Col. John A. Hauck, U.S. Army (ret), explained to me, the dress uniform’s blouse (in civilian terms, the suit jacket) conceals the shirt pockets. According to LCDR Bradley W. Patterson, U.S. Navy, however, there are still uniforms that require military clips, such as the Army’s Class B and similar Air Force uniforms and the Navy’s Service Khakis and Summer Whites. These uniforms do not require a blouse/jacket, and for this reason they call for a military clip on any pen carried in the shirt pocket.
The information in this article is as accurate as possible, but you should not take it as absolutely authoritative or complete. If you have additions or corrections to this page, please consider sharing them with us to improve the accuracy of our information.
This article is also available as a chapter in The RichardsPens Guide to Fountain Pens, Volume 4, an ebook for your computer or mobile device.
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