I have 2 photos of soldiers early in the war wearing shoulder boards, one CS and one US. THe CS was only a 4th SGT and never rose higher and the US was only a CPL. My question is...1) was it common for lower NCO's to wear some form of shoulder board to denote rank or 2) was it common to borrow some officer's coat for a picture or did photographers use the coats as props. Neither set of shoulder boards shows any rank on them, just boards with no bars, stars or other forms of rank.

Thanks