Uniforms and insignia of the Schutzstaffel (including concentration camp staffs) were granted Waffen-SS ranks and, in 1944, any "Allgemeine-SS" who served in an area that commanded SS combat troops, was granted a Waffen-SS commission. Another uniform insignia change occurred in April 1942 with the creation of the rank "SS-Oberstgruppenführer". This necessitated an insignia change for SS generals and all SS generals at this time began wearing "Wehrmacht"-style gold shoulder boards; "Oberführers" wore the shoulderboards of an army "Oberst" ("colonel") just as "Standartenführers" did. The sole exception was Heinrich Himmler who continued to wear the silver braided shoulderboard with oak leaves of his rank as "Reichsführer-SS". At
Uniform of the Union Army as follows: Contemporary photographs and a Winslow Homer painting, "Playing Old Soldier", show staff officers occasionally added their departmental initials within the shoulder straps between the rank insignia. "M.S." for "Medical Staff" appears to have been the most common. With the exception of slight changes to the representing insignia for the more junior commissioned grades as well as additional color combinations for new career fields, the shoulder strap insignia and color scheme survives largely unchanged in the modern era on the Army Service Uniform. Individual officers would sometimes add gold braid Austrian knots on their sleeves but this practice was