Can a platoon sgt tell a female soldier that she is required to wear a bra when in civilians?

On base is 'on base'. And how is this an affront? It's not. Unless you go off base.

Wear the bra. It's the military. Do as you are told.

As a female, our nipples do get hard and it can cause attention. I’ve gone without a bra numerous times and yes, at some point you can see my nipples. I would really like to understand why she asked you to do so and what’s the complete story. However, you should be allowed to wear what you want...

Yes, sadly, it is part of the conduct of the soldier...you belong to the military 24/7.

If that Female Soldier is on base, I would say yes. But, if they're off base then I would say no.

Im sure glad that when i was in we didnt have problems such as this. It was mainly a male Marine Corps. The females were mainly in admin. We stayed as far as we could from the females in the Corps. We used to call them. BAMS. You old timers know what that means.

I would never mention it unless it became a safety / security issue in a foreign environment where it became apparent that the female Soldier may not have been cognizant that her desire to be more comfortable led to an undesired reaction by the local population and unwanted attention that she did not intend to seek from male Soldiers or the local male population.

In any case female leadership within the ranks should handle this matter as a coaching / mentoring session, not as a direct order or as a bad behavior situation. Younger Troops being away from the U.S. the first time, especially those just out of high school or college do not have the same situational awareness, self-awareness or cultural awareness of their actions as do their fellow Troops and Leaders who have been in the military for a while, and have been on more than one deployment or overseas mission.

The other thing to consider as a person who has sisters, female cousins, female Troops, and a wife - always consider that there could be a medical reason too that we may not be aware of - back problems, or something like shingles that occurred on the right side of my wife's bra-line + back + rib area. Her doctor told her to stop wearing a bra until the shingles went away... which lasted about 6 weeks. So, always approach these kind of subjects as a parent or older sibling would in a coaching and mentoring manner - and always lead off if the decision is impacted because of a medical issue.

How we approach subjects as leaders is equally as important because we are training our Troops to one day become leaders too... how well they serve in that role depends on how well we perform in our roles today.

670-1 chapter 20-18 covers wearing a bra by females on duty while in uniform by there is nothing about off duty

As a male who was stationed overseas and in charge of six females in a Dental/Medical Battalion/Brigade (the dental battalion disbanded & we were reassigned to the medical brigade on the same base) I can tell you two things:

1. Since you are a GUEST in another country whatever you do/say and how you act reflects not only in the Military, but the ENTIRE U.S. as well. Some of these countries have a lot different views on females than we do and just the fact that people can tell you aren’t wearing a bra (regardless of what can actually be seen) can be highly disruptive to that culture. So I would take that into account before going higher in the chain of command disputing this particular order.

2. In MY OPINION, your Platoon Sergeant SHOULD NOT have had your MALE team leader issue this order regardless of her outranking him. She not only made it awkward for you & him by forcing him to discuss your private parts with you, but also opened him up to possible repercussions for having that discussion with you in the first place. SHE should have either:
1. Took you aside and told you herself about those concerns/orders or

2. Talked to a FEMALE team leader or even coworker of yours and had them discuss the situation with you woman to woman.

That is what I did when certain topics came up with my soldiers and we never had any problems. If one of them wanted to know why I gave a certain order/command (this was when I was still a sergeant) I would get the female I had talk to that particular soldier come in with them and we would all three sit and discuss & resolve the issue.

What do you Veterans think about the National Guard being vetted while serving in Washington, DC? A lot of these soldiers have served in wars. Makes me angry.