D I V E R S I T Y: the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : variety; especially : the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization
Is what is celebrated in today's military. It's all good, so long as it isn't straight, white, Jewish/Christian, and male. Oh yeah, and if it's tradition, it can't have any actual meaning relevant to today.
Quite some time ago, Marines were banned from singing any cadence that described killing of any particular race, group, religion, ethnicity, or country's citizens - even if that particular group, or citizens of said country were at war with the United States.
There were Marines that wore/wear memorial bracelets the same size and colors as the MIA/POW bracelets, authorized by Congress, from the Vietnam era. Only, there isn't that many MIA/POWs in the GWOT, so Marines wore KIA bracelets to memorialize fallen brothers.
The jerk offs that spent their careers on 'B' Billets and get all their combat experience from watching it on television tried to ban the KIA bracelets. It caused enough issue that Congress updated the rules specifically authorizing KIA bracelets so long as they were the same dimensions and colors authorized for the POW/MIA bracelets.
Completely unrelated, (sarc) that same week the Marine Corps went "sleeves down year round" in the utility uniform, despite the tradition of rolling sleeves since before WWI and Marines known the world over as "white sleeves."
What poses as a "Commandant" for the Marines nowadays has stated he wants to get the Marine Corps back to good "morals."
If it is good historic tradition, or of Judeo-Christian value, or promotes esprit de Corps in today's military, it is targeted and to be destroyed.
It is all about the individual and whether someone's feelings may get hurt.
Another example: Previously Marines wore green woodland cammies year round, unless they were deployed to a desert area; then they wore desert cammies.
As the GWOT picked up, the rule became you wore woodlands unless deployed, just returning from a deployment, or just about to deploy - this way you could also break in desert boots prior to deploying etc. There were many that never got out of desert cammies - they were always in one of those three categories. It soon became apparent who was pulling weight in the war and who never deployed. And people complained. So the rule was changed again.
In the winter you wear woodland utilities/jungle uniform (I guess jungles are cold?) and in the summertime you wear desert uniforms - yes even in the field in the barren sandy expanse of Camp Lejeune, NC, (sarcasm for those that need it identified). The concept of "camouflage" completely lost when wearing "camouflage" utilities.
I can only imagine what it is like in the other services (well the Army has to wear glowbelts pretty much every wear they go) and at least on one of their posts in Afghanistan, eye protection was REQUIRED to eat crab legs.
I can't wait to see what constitutes "religious apparel" and "facial hair" and what will be allowed vs. what will not.
Glad I'm out.
there’s still fragging to handle the occasional overbearing dumbass.