Over a decade ago the various commanders of US forces operating on foreign shores issued orders that forbade the wearing of military uniforms by military personnel engaged in military duties or assignments. They didn't merely discourage our combatant forces in foreign lands from wearing their military uniforms, they forbade the wearing of any uniform in a number of cases and allowed such undignified mods to the authorized uniforms that surely boiled the brains of Chief Petty Officers, Gunnies and First Sergeants expected to enforce the Force Protection orders and order the wholesale violation of the Uniform Regulations.
It's interesting to speculate that the reason the various overseas Admirals and Generals ordered these Force Protection measures was to attempt to have our Sailors, Soldiers, Marines and Air Forces more easily 'blend in' with the local populace and thus escape easy targeting by the enemy. I suspect that's the case. The Orders required a lot of silly things.
What do you suppose the JAGs had to say about our Armed Forces being ordered to doff uniforms while waging war in war-zones in which all our forces qualified for Imminent Danger or Hazardous Duty pay? Did anybody dare to point out that the Geneva Conventions spell out that all military personnel must wear distinctive uniforms or be considered Unlawful Combatants?
I'm sure they did.
2 comments:
Now I'm thinking back to the day when enlisted personnel were not even allowed civilian clothing on board the ship because of space limitations and we were required to change from dungarees to the uniform of the day when liberty call was announced.
Yep, me too. I remember us all going ashore in Aqaba, Jordan on Palestinian Land Day in Dress Blues because that was the liberty uniform prescribed by the country team in Amman. This was about 3 years after the bombing of the Marines in Lebanon.
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