Posted on 12/04/2015 9:24:23 AM PST by Fundamentally Fair
A Marine who recently performed the national anthem at a Donald Trump presidential campaign rally has been told to cease further uniformed campaign activities.
Cpl. Jason Perkins, a reservist with Combat Logistics Battalion 451 out of Charlotte, North Carolina, awed crowds at a Nov. 21 campaign rally for the Republican candidate in Birmingham, Alabama, with a booming rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," which he performed in his dress blue uniform.
But when a video of the performance began circulating online, members of the military quickly pointed out that he was in violation of regulations prohibiting troops from wearing their uniforms to political events.
Marine Forces Reserve spokesman Capt. Andrew Chrestman said the command had reached out to Perkins after his campaign performance.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
Check out 1334.1 "Wearing of the Uniform" 3.1 (I reformatted the PDF for yesterday's thread, but since that got deleted, I'm not going to put the effort into it again. It specifically covers reservists.
My point is that 1344.10 (like every other DoD directive) carries no weight if it has no teeth. The only way to prosecute someone for a violation of a directive like this is through the UCMJ (likely an article 92 violation) - which doesn’t apply to reservists when they aren’t at drill.
I knew a lot of reservists that would show up early to drill with beards and walk past officers (I even knew an officer or two that did this) and nothing was done to them. As long as they were in regulation when the drill started, growing a beard was perfectly legal as a reservist.
Note that this is different if he were to have posted something on his Facebook page that was disparaging towards his chain of command - even if he posted it when not at drill, he could be prosecuted if it was still there when he went to drill.
In all fairness, this was preached back when I was on active duty with the Marines in the early 1980s, when Reagan was CIC.
See my post above. A DoD directive may reference reservists, but a violation of that directive is a UCMJ violation (article 92) - which doesn’t apply to reservists when not at drill. DoD can put out whatever directive they want, but they can’t prosecute a reservist under the UCMJ for what happens away from drill (unless that person still has drugs in their system when they show up to drill - that’s a different story).
More info:
DoD Ethics Counselor's Desk Book, October 2015
Off-installation political events. All members of the Armed Forces are prohibited from wearing military uniforms at political campaign or elections events. This prohibition is not applicable to the joint color guards at the opening ceremonies of national political conventions
Further
Members of the Armed Forces also includes retirees and members of the Reserve Components not on active duty including, for section 4.3, members of the National Guard even when in non-Federal status.
I cannot.
Unless he was directed by his superiors to sing the anthem as a part of his duties, the Joint Ethics Reg specifically prohibits military members, whether on active orders or not, from appearing at political events in uniform on behalf of any candidate.
Thanks
ALL: See previous post
And what’s the prosecution mechanism? A UCMJ violation (article 92)?
Then there is no prosecution mechanism - reservists aren’t subject to the UCMJ when not at drill or on AT.
http://www.ucmj.us/about-the-ucmj
“Members of the military Reserve Components under Title 10 of the United States Code (Army Reserve, Navy Reserve, Marine Forces Reserve, and Air Force Reserve) or Title 14 of the United States Code, Coast Guard Reserve when not operating as part of the U.S. Navy, are subject to the UCMJ if they are either (a) active duty Full-Time Support personnel such as FTS or Active Guard and Reserve (AGR), or (b) traditional part-time reservists performing either (a) full-time active duty for a specific period (i.e., Annual Training, Active Duty for Training, Active Duty for Operational Support, Active Duty Special Work, One Year Recall, Three Year Recall, Canvasser Recruiter, Mobilization, etc.), or (b) performing Inactive Duty (i.e. Inactive Duty Training, Inactive Duty Travel and Training, Unit Training Assembly, Additional Training Periods, Additional Flying Training Periods, Reserve Management Periods, etc., all of which are colloquially known as “drills”).”
The only time I’ve ever heard of a reservist being punished for something that happened away from drill is when their actions spilled over into drill, like failing a drug test.
For National Guard components, there are state versions of the UCMJ (TXCMJ, OKCMJ, etc). They typically govern activity specifically when NOT on federal orders.
For reservists, I think you have an interesting point. The “not at drill” excuse has been used to screw plenty a guardsman and reservist. The reg appears to my untrained eye to be well outside what is provided in the law. But then that’s nothing new, is it.
LOR and potentially establishment of a UIF at the next drill is normally what happens in cases like this, and they’re more common than you may think, especially during campaign season.
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