Pentagon Relaxes Rules On Religious Clothing And Appearance In Military Uniforms

[NobleSavage]

(Reuters) - The Pentagon took steps on Wednesday to give individual troops greater latitude to wear turbans, head scarfs, yarmulkes and other religious clothing with their uniforms, but advocacy groups said the new policy fell short of what they were seeking.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/pentagon-religious-clothing_n_4651050.html

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I'd want to wear a FSM hat.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

That's a sharp looking truban on Cap't Kalsi. I want to be in his brigade.

Mr FSM, needs moar bootcamp.

 

[Keith&Co.]

"The military departments will accommodate individual expressions of sincerely held beliefs (conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs) of service members" unless it might affect military readiness or unit cohesion, the updated policy on religious accommodation said.

I think i might want the decision made a few steps above the unit commander. That's just asking for an anti-standard. One of my CO's told Jewish Jokes in Control, but the first time he heard that i'd told "How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb?" jokes, and that one of hte punchlines was Catholic, he wanted me written up for failure to support the Navy's Equal Opportunity Program.

Make it high enough, an individual might be able to move between sea and shore commands and not have to reapply for accomodation each transfer.

 

[Metaphor]

"The military departments will accommodate individual expressions of sincerely held beliefs (conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs) of service members" unless it might affect military readiness or unit cohesion, the updated policy on religious accommodation said.

I think i might want the decision made a few steps above the unit commander. That's just asking for an anti-standard. One of my CO's told Jewish Jokes in Control, but the first time he heard that i'd told "How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb?" jokes, and that one of hte punchlines was Catholic, he wanted me written up for failure to support the Navy's Equal Opportunity Program.

Make it high enough, an individual might be able to move between sea and shore commands and not have to reapply for accomodation each transfer.

It seems to me 'unit cohesion' is the 'get out of jail free' card for any exemptions they want to make.

How on earth do they measure unit cohesion, and how it is affected by someone's religious dress?

(I'm glad to see 'sincerely held' matters of conscience are included in the list, and not just religious beliefs).