• Mexican Military Insigniaminiature model army image by Jon Barnes from Fotolia.com
  
  Mexican soldiers wear their ranks on their shoulders (on epaulets). There are three branches of the Mexican military (Army, Navy and Air Force) and the Army and Air Force both have the same insignia of rank although they call a couple of the ranks by different names. There is a band of color on the end of the epaulets that indicates the branch of the service. The Navy has a completely different set of insignia.
  
  

Generals

• Mexican generals have a row of silver stars in a line along the epaulets. Four stars indicate a secretary of national defense; Three stars indicate a divisional general; two stars indicate a brigade general (wing general in the Air Force); one star indicates a brigadier general (group general in the Air Force). The more stars the higher the rank.
  
  

Leaders

• Leaders have gold stars. Three stars arranged in a triangle indicate a colonel; two stars indicate a lieutenant colonel and one gold star indicates a major. The more stars the higher the rank.
  
  

Officials

• The officials are the lowest officer ranks in the Mexican army. Three gold bars of equal length indicate a captain; three gold bars with the middle bar shorter than the others indicate a second captain; Two gold bars indicate a lieutenant and a single gold bar indicates a sub lieutenant. The more bars the higher the rank.
  
  

Enlisted

• Enlisted men have stripes across their epaulets to indicate rank. The stripes are parallel to the band on the end of the epaulets that indicates branch. The stripes are thinner than the branch indicator but are the same color. Four stripes indicate a first sergeant; three stripes indicate a second sergeant; two stripes indicate a corporal and no stripes indicate a private. The greater the number of stripes, the higher the rank.
  
  

Branches

• The band of color on the tips of the epaulets indicate branch in the Army and Air Force. The Navy does not use this system. There are a lot of colors and sometimes it is hard to distinguish one from the other. Yellow indicates generals; light brown indicates general staff and presidential guards; scarlet indicates infantry; burgundy indicates artillery; red-brown indicates quartermaster; light orange-brown indicates transport; green indicates military police; blue indicates engineers; light blue indicates cavalry; light grey-blue indicates cartography; purple indicates Air Force; grey indicates musicians; light grey indicates armor; very light grey indicates intelligence and yellow is medical.
  
  

Navy

• Navy insignia is also on epaulets but is repeated on the cuffs. In all but the admirals, the epaulet backgrounds are black. For admirals the backgrounds are gold. For enlisted men the insignia is a silver anchor with silver stripes for the higher enlisted ranks. The lowest rank is seaman (no stripes) and then the various grades of petty officer are signified by silver stripes. The more stripes the higher the rank. The lower grades of of naval officers have a single gold looped stripe with possibly additional straight gold stripes from ranks of midshipman through captain. The admiral ranks are signified with silver stars on a gold background. The more stars the higher the rank.