Uniform Protocol

Maureen Dig Aire · 30 March 2009, 03:28 PM

What is the protocol involving the wearing of uniforms in the armed forces? When are you allowed to wear it after you've been discharged...other than for the Armistice (Veterans) Day, Memorial Day or 4th of July parade? How has such changed since The Great War, if at all?
(My dad was in the Navy during WWII and I never saw him wear his uniform. He was an active member in the American Legion, and I saw him wear the cap and walk in parades with that group.)

Doc · 31 March 2009, 12:56 AM

In the United States, The governing law is para 772 of the US Code 10

TITLE 10 - ARMED FORCES
Subtitle A - General Military Law
PART II - PERSONNEL
CHAPTER 45 - THE UNIFORM

-HEAD-
Sec. 772. When wearing by persons not on active duty authorized

-STATUTE-
(a) A member of the Army National Guard or the Air National Guard
may wear the uniform prescribed for the Army National Guard or the
Air National Guard, as the case may be.
(b) A member of the Naval Militia may wear the uniform prescribed
for the Naval Militia.
(c) A retired officer of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine
Corps may bear the title and wear the uniform of his retired grade.
(d) A person who is discharged honorably or under honorable
conditions from the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps may wear
his uniform while going from the place of discharge to his home,
within three months after his discharge.
(e) A person not on active duty who served honorably in time of
war in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps may bear the
title, and, when authorized by regulations prescribed by the
President, wear the uniform, of the highest grade held by him
during that war.
(f) While portraying a member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or
Marine Corps, an actor in a theatrical or motion-picture production
may wear the uniform of that armed force if the portrayal does not
tend to discredit that armed force.
(g) An officer or resident of a veterans' home administered by
the Department of Veterans Affairs may wear such uniform as the
Secretary of the military department concerned may prescribe.
(h) While attending a course of military instruction conducted by
the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps, a civilian may wear the
uniform prescribed by that armed force if the wear of such uniform
is specifically authorized under regulations prescribed by the
Secretary of the military department concerned.
(i) Under such regulations as the Secretary of the Air Force may
prescribe, a citizen of a foreign country who graduates from an Air
Force school may wear the appropriate aviation badges of the Air
Force.

Doc

Maureen Dig Aire · 31 March 2009, 07:20 AM

Thank you, Doc. So, if you were a captain when you were discharged, you can continue to call yourself, and be referred to, as Captain?

You may wear your uniform after you were discharged from the "point of discharge" to home, even if it takes three months to get there?

How has this changed since TGW? Say, my character was discharged (I still need to find a way to get him discharged honorably--a broken leg, a broken arm, a severe reaction to the tetanus shot and what else? Maybe a false positive on a TB diagnosis? But, wouldn't he have to be quarantined?) before the war ended, he may wear his uniform as he gets off the ship to show/impress his parents?

Another question: Speaking of three months to get home---Didn't it take some of Our Boys many months to make it home after 11/11/18? I think I read somewhere where some servicemen had trouble finding room on ships heading to America.

WarrenD · 31 March 2009, 09:50 AM

Maureen,
Servicemen would NOT have been discharged overseas, therefore, that is not an issue. If memory serves, after WWII, servicemen were discharged at the post closest (within reason) to their home of record, etc. My father was discharged at a base in Arkansas. Why? He told them he was trying to make it home to my mom in Memphis, TN. (Not his home of record, BTW, but she was living with her parents while my dad was deployed to the PTO.)

HTH,

Warren

Doc · 31 March 2009, 10:10 AM

Maureen, as Warren said, people would not have been discharged overseas, so that is not the issue. They would have traveled home still on active duty, and still in uniform. They would have had no problem getting off the boat in uniform.

As to calling yourself by your former rank, yes that is permitted 1) if you have wartime service, or 2) if you retired (rather than just being discharged).-- I assume that aspect has not changed since the great war, though I suspect the use of military rank in those discharged was greater following WWI than currently (a hold-over from the old British class system, I suspect, which has significantly gone down since WWI). Even in the UK, I don't meet many people today who call themselves "Captain", etc., unless they are retired-- just service is not enough in today's society, even though officially authorised.

I don't think any of the medical conditions you mention would get him discharged during the war. They would have waited for him to heal and get back to duty. You need to find something which would give him a permanent or at least long-term disability. A compound fracture of the femur with subsequent infection and bad healing leading to a diagnosis of osteomyelitis would probably work. If you need something else for the story, please ask, and I will be happy to try to think of something. Doc

Maureen Dig Aire · 31 March 2009, 12:18 PM

Doc and WarrenD, GREAT Info! It's VERY much appreciated!! But, how would that discharge-overseas-thing work with Americans who flew for France? Now, I know a number of the Lafayette Escadrille actually lived in Paris, but what about some of the others who transferred to the air arm from other branches, including ambulance-driving? I suppose some of them would have used a Paris address...d'ya think?

I'm especially glad about that rank-thing. I always thought it was just a tad

pretentious to keep calling yourself Capt. after you got out of the service, unless you owned a boat. lol

Doc, lemme get back to ya on those diagnoses, ok?

What about Americans having trouble getting back to America after the war ended? Was that true? Oh, and I think I remember reading it in Springs....maybe either Nocturne Militaire or Warbirds. (Can you believe that I actually remembered where I read something?)

That cattle boat that so many American and Canadian aces apparently worked their way across on must've been torpedoed by this time, huh? lol

Doc · 1 April 2009, 06:29 AM

Maureen, I agree that it is a bit pretentious, but it was done. Remember "Captain Mannering" in "Dad's Army"? As regarding those who flew for the French, who knows? They would come under French Rules, not American, and I suspect that most of them would have come home in civilian clothes. Those who actually joined up from France would have come under the same US rules as those who joined in the US, I expect. Talk to me later about the diseases if you wish. Doc

Maureen Dig Aire · 1 April 2009, 08:48 AM

Yeah....well, now that I'm thinkin' here....many of the American pilots who flew for France transferred from the Foreign Legion. So, I wonder how that worked. Some others transferred from an ambulance service. Some of the more presitigious American universities, like Princeton, formed their own ambulance-driving volunteer groups. Does anybody know? Cher Bruno, mon ami! Savez vous? (did I use the correct form?)