It's too bad there isn't some way of recognizing his (imminent) military service with some sort of tassle or other design as part of the hat and/or robe, the way (in college anyway) they do it for graduating with honors or to show the department/college your major was in or etc etc. Maybe some sort of rope or shoulder-piece...
(sorry for the rambling nature of this post)
Maybe his haircut will do the trick. ;)
I remeber when I graduated boot camp, I felt so proud and wanted everyone to know, probably how this guy feels. However, we were taught that conformity was necessary as was being an integral part of a group or team. I don't believe being a Marine has anything to do with the uniform and everything to do with character.