My father in law passed away and his funeral is tomorrow. He served in the Marines during Vietnam and then worked full time for the Air National Guard until retirement.

My mother in law found these small pins in some of his military stuff. First question is what are these? Second question, can the pallbearers wear these as lapel pins at the funeral? Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

Rank insignia. Temporary, respectful use during the funeral is ok.

He was a Corporal and you can wear whatever on your lapels, they won't care. You might want to look at his DD-214 and research his Vietnam unit history if you can and find out where he was. Probably up north I'm guessing, but USMC infantry in Vietnam, he stepped in some sh*t for sure.

Thanks for the information. A local Marine group came by the visitation service last night and gave us some pretty cool lapel pins to wear.

The red and gold rank insignia are for dress uniforms, while the black were for the olive drab or camouflage uniforms worn in the field or combat. All are worn on the collar, and/or epaulet of the dress uniform. He was a Corporal (E-4) non-commissioned officer.