Posted on 07/05/2007 3:59:05 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
The article says that he did, but he disputes that claim.
that’s is why i said i don’t THINK he did. also, he was only charged with dressing like one so i would dispute the claim that he impersonated.
Start wearing a Police uniform around here and you’ll get a few free meals....in jail.
Ulysses S. Grant wore his old Army coat for years after he resigned. Someone asked him why.... “It is not worn out yet.”
When he was named to command a regiment, it was worn out, and it was not until his first payday that he could bespeak a uniform. Later in the war, he had plenty of money, but still wore a private’s uniform, with his shoulder straps.
The celebrated difference between the finery of R.E. Lee and the plain dress of US Grant at Appromatox was partly due to circumstance. Lee was pressed so hard he had to abandon his baggage, and selected his best uniform to wear/keep. Grant was pressing hard, and left his dress uniform(s) behind in his baggage.
Lee wore his uniform for perhaps a week afterwards, until he could get appropriate civilian clothes.
Reenactors of all eras wear uniforms on occasion. Many are veterans, many are not. Obviously, if you are a WWII reenactor and not in your late 70’s or 80’s, you are not a WWII veteran.
Reenactors honor the service of those that have come before, and they keep history alive.
That’s one way to sure tell if someone is active duty, isn’t it? These phonies might be able to talk the lingo but without the metal and ID card, they fall apart.
Things might have changed, but when I was discharged from the USAF, I could still wear all the pieces of my old uniforms, with all rank,military insignia and badges stripped from them, but only as separate pieces, and only one piece at a time.
I can wear my field and flight jackets, but not in combination with fatigue pants.
I can wear my fatigue pants, but not with a fatigue shirt or any unit’s T-Shirt.
I swiftly donated (ditched) my blue uniform elements to an AF base thrift shop.
We have had lots of problems with people in Florida “impersonating” certain government officials.
Namely police and military members.
It seems a fairly common sense based law, to my eyes.
If the intent is to impersonate active duty personnel to defraud, then prosecute for that. Fine.
But to prosecute for simply wearing items available at my local army/navy surplus store is patently absurd.
I agree - but that isn't what he was charged with.
oh i agree. there is a fine line, i guess, between impersonation and simple patriotism. wearing camo is no big deal, but wearing rank emblems and medals might cross the line a little. why wear medals that aren’t yours?
Does your local Army/Navy surplus store sell surplus uniforms with Army or Navy emblems and/or badges sewn on them?
If they do, they are in violation of DOD regulations, and civilian crime laws. FReepmail me the store location, and I will inform them of their regulatory errors.
As a former USAF NCOIC, it often fell to me to remind active duty personnel they were not authorized to “hang out” at the local civilian bars, on their way home off base, in casual work uniforms.
Flight suits and fatigues are no goes, except for grocery stores, banks, gas stations, fast food restaurants that do not serve alcohol, etc...
Florida is a casual clothing state.
But if you are wearing an official looking BATF or FDLE T-shirt in public, you better have a photo ID for a BATF or FDLE division ID card.
We have a law here that clearly states that the simple unauthorized act of wearing certain specified items of official clothing is actionable in and of itself, and the lawyerly legal nicety of having to prove specific separate “intent to deceive” is irrelevant, since intent to deceive is patently obvious in the wearing of the unauthorized clothing, in combination with another crime.
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