By 
Marines have the highest standards of professionalism at all times. Whether you’re on the clock in your uniform, or off work doing beer-bongs with your boys from the 3rd deck catwalk, you’re expected to wear proper attire.
The Corps’ idea of “proper civilian attire” is somewhere between high school virgin and 48 year old divorced dad with a golfing problem.ย Apparently, it’s considered proper to wear a buttoned up polo shirt tucked into mom-jeans with go-fasters on your feet.
But like all things in the Corps, there’s a reason for this. If you look like a complete tool, you’re less likely to get in trouble. Reduced liberty incidents, reduced pregnancies and early marriages, reduced invitations to parties where there may be hard drugs and alcohol. It’s a win-win for Uncle Sam.
Amen,
so much more purpose in all the stupid games than people understand.
Too busy to party,
too busy to end up in jail/dead/pregnant.
Grooming standards and dress standards are important- given that todays generation think that its acceptable to walk around with their pants down and underwear showing! Having tatoos all over themselves like walking comic books is something us older people dont really get either.
BUT- the Corps can get pretty absurd about this issue. Years ago at Officer TBS (The Basic School) I endured a screaming fit of rage by a Captain because I committed the crime of wearing BLUE JEANS while on Liberty! Apparantly the Corps had declared war on BLUE JEANS as attire not befitting a Marine Officer, and I suffered the verbal abuse for it!
The Corps has all sorts of rules that get lost in their intent and just become absurd in everyday sitatuions.
Once againโฆ
thereโs a method to the madness ๐คฏ
Such deep knowledge
Only thing my Finnish officers cared was that I did not do stupid shit while in uniform while on leave and was back on time. Since good chunk of officers training us were in their mid-late twenties and NCO’s were year or two older there wasn’t really a generational gap in terms of inapropriate clothing, well exept for wearing shirt with “wrong” hockey team logo. Good thing I didn’t root for any of the close by ones.
As a still-pretty-boot PFC in 1970, I was written up at the Pendleton PX one Saturday for … not wearing a belt with my blue jeans. Since I didn’t need one, I didn’t even have a civvie belt. So, rather than risk getting caught up in that particular troop harassment again, I simply cut the belt loops off. ๐
YU says “todays generation” has pants down and underwear showing…that style started over 30 years ago and the people who dressed like that in high school are today’s Staff NCOs… hell, I’m an E-8 (in another branch) and JNCO Elephants were all the rage when I was in school.
The problem is, we all know we can’t dress like we did in high school, but we’re disconnected from fashion because we wear a uniform all damn day. So, pick up some unoffensive gear from the BX, try not to pull the tacticool contractor look, and this is what we wind up with ๐
In SOI, PMO stopped our bus from Oceanside and dudes came aboard and started pulling asses out of seats if they weren’t in the correct civilian attire. We could drink on base at 17, but God forbid you have a pair of flip flops on your feet.
I don’t like going to country clubs, only because I have to tuck my shirt in. I’m a rebel like that.