thedrifter
07-26-05, 12:38 PM
August 01, 2005
Covers coming off
Safety, savings, drive new rules
By Gordon Lubold
Times staff writer
You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief.
The Marine Corps Uniform Board decided Marines riding in personal vehicles in uniform are no longer required to wear their covers.
The regulation often raised eyebrows because wearing a cover while driving can be uncomfortable, or even unsafe if it obstructs the driver’s view.
Marines were always allowed to remove their covers if wearing it posed a legitimate safety issue, but that decision was often left to military police, who were spending time effectively acting as fashion police, stopping drivers who weren’t wearing their covers.
“The MPs were having to determine it, so to make it easier for them, it’s the individual’s choice,” said Mary Boyt, a uniform board spokeswoman at Quantico, Va.
In a government vehicle, however, the current policy remains in effect: You still have to wear your cover as long as it doesn’t pose a safety hazard.
One Marine praised the change immediately.
“That’s good,” said Staff Sgt. Christina Delai, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps headquarters, when asked about the change. Delai fondly remembers a master sergeant she knew who was a stickler about the regulation.
He might not notice if someone wore his shirt backward, Delai recalled, but if a Marine drove past him without his cover on the master sergeant would walk out into the middle of the street to flag him down.
“I like the fact that when you’re in a [personally owned vehicle], you don’t have to wear it; I like that change,” she said. “That will stop some crazies stepping out in front of cars.”
Other changes
The headgear change is one of eight decisions issued recently by the Marine Corps Uniform Board.
Recruits will no longer be issued dress blue trousers or slacks and a cover with service insignia, saving the Corps as much as $2 million per year. Recruit depot officials raised the issue, saying that money is wasted when pants and covers are issued to junior Marines who don’t wear them anyway.
Most junior Marines have no need to wear modified blues before becoming a noncommissioned officer. By that time, the uniform items they were issued in recruit training might not fit properly.
With the change, Marines who occupy a billet in which they must wear dress blues — career planners, recruiters or Marine security guards, for example — will be given the clothing allowance to cover the cost of buying the uniform, Boyt said.
The $2 million cost savings will allow the Corps to begin issuing khaki shirts of a poly-cotton blend and of greater quality than those previously issued.
The money also will allow the Corps to issue combat utility uniforms to all sailors serving with the Corps — not just religious program specialists, dental technicians and corpsmen.
Among the board’s other decisions:
• Marines are now authorized to wear long-sleeve safety jackets over their uniforms when riding a motorcycle.
• Marines can go back to wearing either shiny or subdued breast insignia on the combat utility uniform. Initially, only subdued insignia were allowed.
• Supplementary dress-blue allowances will now be made for ceremonial details for Marine Corps Reserve Support Command in Kansas City, Mo.; the Marine Corps Detachment at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; and Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Atlantic, in Norfolk, Va.
• Female Marines are now authorized to wear diamond stud earrings while wearing the evening dress uniform. Pearl earrings are still authorized.
• The board clarified its policy on the color of the neck tab female officers wear with their dress blues. Now, they are required to wear the black neck tab with the dress blue “C” uniform and the red necktab with the “A” or “B” uniforms, Boyt said.
• A proposal to allow enlisted Marines to wear gold-plated insignia on the service sweater with epaulettes was denied by the board.
“The gold was just too gaudy, so they decided to stick with the black,” Boyt said.
Ellie
Covers coming off
Safety, savings, drive new rules
By Gordon Lubold
Times staff writer
You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief.
The Marine Corps Uniform Board decided Marines riding in personal vehicles in uniform are no longer required to wear their covers.
The regulation often raised eyebrows because wearing a cover while driving can be uncomfortable, or even unsafe if it obstructs the driver’s view.
Marines were always allowed to remove their covers if wearing it posed a legitimate safety issue, but that decision was often left to military police, who were spending time effectively acting as fashion police, stopping drivers who weren’t wearing their covers.
“The MPs were having to determine it, so to make it easier for them, it’s the individual’s choice,” said Mary Boyt, a uniform board spokeswoman at Quantico, Va.
In a government vehicle, however, the current policy remains in effect: You still have to wear your cover as long as it doesn’t pose a safety hazard.
One Marine praised the change immediately.
“That’s good,” said Staff Sgt. Christina Delai, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps headquarters, when asked about the change. Delai fondly remembers a master sergeant she knew who was a stickler about the regulation.
He might not notice if someone wore his shirt backward, Delai recalled, but if a Marine drove past him without his cover on the master sergeant would walk out into the middle of the street to flag him down.
“I like the fact that when you’re in a [personally owned vehicle], you don’t have to wear it; I like that change,” she said. “That will stop some crazies stepping out in front of cars.”
Other changes
The headgear change is one of eight decisions issued recently by the Marine Corps Uniform Board.
Recruits will no longer be issued dress blue trousers or slacks and a cover with service insignia, saving the Corps as much as $2 million per year. Recruit depot officials raised the issue, saying that money is wasted when pants and covers are issued to junior Marines who don’t wear them anyway.
Most junior Marines have no need to wear modified blues before becoming a noncommissioned officer. By that time, the uniform items they were issued in recruit training might not fit properly.
With the change, Marines who occupy a billet in which they must wear dress blues — career planners, recruiters or Marine security guards, for example — will be given the clothing allowance to cover the cost of buying the uniform, Boyt said.
The $2 million cost savings will allow the Corps to begin issuing khaki shirts of a poly-cotton blend and of greater quality than those previously issued.
The money also will allow the Corps to issue combat utility uniforms to all sailors serving with the Corps — not just religious program specialists, dental technicians and corpsmen.
Among the board’s other decisions:
• Marines are now authorized to wear long-sleeve safety jackets over their uniforms when riding a motorcycle.
• Marines can go back to wearing either shiny or subdued breast insignia on the combat utility uniform. Initially, only subdued insignia were allowed.
• Supplementary dress-blue allowances will now be made for ceremonial details for Marine Corps Reserve Support Command in Kansas City, Mo.; the Marine Corps Detachment at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; and Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Atlantic, in Norfolk, Va.
• Female Marines are now authorized to wear diamond stud earrings while wearing the evening dress uniform. Pearl earrings are still authorized.
• The board clarified its policy on the color of the neck tab female officers wear with their dress blues. Now, they are required to wear the black neck tab with the dress blue “C” uniform and the red necktab with the “A” or “B” uniforms, Boyt said.
• A proposal to allow enlisted Marines to wear gold-plated insignia on the service sweater with epaulettes was denied by the board.
“The gold was just too gaudy, so they decided to stick with the black,” Boyt said.
Ellie