Those young men did something very few of their classmates or for that matter, very few of this country's young men have done - volunteered and successfully completed boot camp.
They should have been honored by that school.
Headquarters, U. S. MCO 1020
11003. SECRETARY OF THE NAVY POLICY PERTAINING TO UNIFORMS
c. Authorization to wear the uniform should be granted by a commanding officer when reasonably assured that the service member’s appearance in uniform at the particular event, viewed objectively, is not for the purpose of lending substantial weight or significance to privately held convictions or interests…
The interest here was not in the interest of the Marines, but of the service members themselves. And they admit that in the opening sentence of the thread like I mentioned. The members cannot use the uniform for personal gain, in this case, admiration.
“They should have been honored by that school”
Recognized maybe, but not with the use of the uniform. They were not there in uniform to represent the branch but themselves. Now if the school didn’t require certain things in the wearing of the graduation dress, they could have misused the uniform. But that opens the door for any type of uniform and people could wear a German soldier’s nazi uniform. And it’s uniforms like these that the school is trying to control. You can’t just let one side do something and not the other. So, they set a standard.
And one of the most important reasons for not letting them go on display is to protect them and the branch from itself. Kids come out of basic training with knowledge of how to fold their under ware and polish their boots. And many know where they are going to tech school and a little about what is taught there. But they are not prepared to meet the public that might ask questions they are not prepared to receive when they are not public affairs personnel trained in the proper way to field such situations.
So the ability to misrepresent the corps or issue some sensitive information is readily available.
Example: we’ll say one of the troops is going to language school. He is going to learn Korean so he can monitor systems. If he entertains that question and answers the truth or even a partially deflected response, (talk around), he has just passed information. And many of those will be graduating from the school with higher that secret level. They don’t know what to say. Better not put them on display. They will learn, I hope. But they are not ready, yet.
wy69
Read 29 who has the experience. Stop the revisionist history. It’s boring.