Off Base In Uniform Hours After Close of Business (COB)? Epidemic?

In the Navy and Marine Corps we could not wear our digitalis off base except during lunch if we were going somewhere for lunch and coming back. Technically if we lived off base we could wear the uniform in transit to home, but we always just had a change of civvies and put them on when we got off duty. I don't think ANY uniform should be worn off base except in certain cases because it makes you vulnerable to attack and/or manipulation

It bothers me to when I was at fort Meade I would always see the national guard at the mall in uniform on weekends. It pissed me off i refuse to wear my uniform off post unless I have no other choice.

I say rime to mind uour business, and let people be. Uou don't know peoples individual situation. It is hard enough being in the military, without individuals making it harder than it needs to be. In San Diego and throughout California , there are so many bases that you see service members at all types of hours. Let sleeping dogs lie.

During my time in the Marine Corp the utility or cammy uniform was not allowed to be worn off base. If you want to show you uniform in town, put on your alphas.

It’s seems to be a huge epidemic since who the hell knows when. Each base has a Bluebook or some policy stating this, pretty much any base I’ve been to, as MSG Quackenbush references, it always says the same thing at ever base but yet most of us drive home, hang up our uniform, put civilians on and go do whatever it is we are going to do. The same thing happened in 98 on through the rest of my time and correcting these people usually gets you in hot water cus there is a Senior floating around doing the same thing, so when you go to correct someone, because your in the right and upholding a standard you end up getting your ars jumped by someone else who doesn’t up hold policy. But by the picture I’m not sure if it’s the fact that it’s way past your base policy or the fact the this Soldeir is wearing which appears to be a soft shoe profile, and their fleece. I know when I look at that pic I am like wow, still hasn’t changed. Keep going down your path the fact that this bothers you is a good sign that one day you’ll be assisting the division General with a new policy with consequences.

Just a little side story for ya! There I was 1998 Watertown NY Mall, 2000hrs, Mall covered with BDU’s and a little short guy yelled like the world was coming to the end. It just happened to be one of our BDE CSM’s and by the time he was done yelling, all you saw was green running in all direction out of the mall lol! It was the best time I’ve ever had inside a mall food court. So, the standard is their, just who upholds it? And how as a lower enlisted do you address a situation without getting your ars in a sling?

Maybe one day this will actually be enforced or no policy at all since it seems to be a waste of paper.

Good Luck!!

So your argument and the csm below is your uniform should never be worn in public between the hours of 1900 and I'm guessing 0600 regardless of the situation.
It's your kids birthday and you taking them out for pizza and a movie. You leave work with plenty of time to get home, change your clothes and get them to the pizza joint. On your way home a semi catches fire and shuts down the freeway. By the time the fire is out and the freeway reopened you only have enough time to meet at the theater. So you choose to go the theater and watch a movie with your small child that you were away from for 18 months missing their birth and their first birthday. Someone thinks you are wrong for putting your family first and calls you out on it. How do you feel about that?
Or the example of the soldier going to the nail salon on her way home while in uniform. Nevermind the fact she is a very private person who does not share her feelings with her co-workers. And she has had a shit week getting home on Monday to learn her husband left her for a 20 something, finding out Tuesday that she not only has an std from her cheating husband but also has cervical cancer (brought to light by the std), and then Thursday learns her best friend from childhood was killed in a car wreck. She is vulnerable and contemplating ending her life, thinks maybe a mani-pedi will get her back in her right mind. Then you come up with your chest puffed out and scold her for it, demand her name and unit so the can properly punish her (article 15 maybe). She stops on her way home and leaps off a bridge to her death because you just pushed over the edge.
Be careful with your words for they can sometimes be just as deadly as the round fired from your issued weapon.

23 yrs ago came out with the Blue book or Ft. Campbell regs.
One of those regs was no BDUs at Walmart, gas station was fine, also put in the no PT uniform at the PX.
But the soldiers still said screw it because the double standards. So if not leading by example that is what happens.

A couple of thoughts here for this post man. First off we don't say Lower Enlisted, we say Junior Enlisted. I will preface my comments with this, you will never know the situation unless you ask. Soldier in uniform at the theater might have been picking up a friend or family member. That being said, as an Officer I work a ton of hours and will sometimes meet my family for dinner and head right back to work. Additionally I will meet my wife at the store when I have a few minutes to help out and head right back to work or head to the house with her after. Not all Soldiers have a Horn to Horn position and take advantage of a routine trip to the store to spend time with a family member and to help out with the kids for the sake of sanity. Now private snuffy picking up chicks with his awesome new uniform is the other end of the spectrum in the mall drinking Orange Julius and shopping at Spencer's instead of heading back to the barracks first. You will never go wrong enforcing the standard but do it with respect and to develop the individual. I will leave you with one of my favorite stories I read in FM22-100, yes I read FMs, when I was at PLDC at fort Bragg years ago.
The K Company Visit
1LT Harold Leinbaugh, commander of K Company, 333d Infantry Regiment, 84th Division,related
this experience from the ETO in January,1945, during the coldest winter in Europe in nearly 50 years:
On a front-line visit, the battalion commander criticized 1LT Leinbaugh and CPT Jay Prophet, the
A Company Commander, for their own and their men’s appearance. He said it looked like no one had
shaved for a week. 1LT Leinbaugh replied that there was no hot water. Sensing a teaching moment,
the colonel responded: “Now if you men would save some of your morning coffee it could be used for
shaving.” Stepping over to a snowbank, 1LT Leinbaugh picked up a five-gallon GI [general issue]
coffee can brought up that morning, and shook it in the colonel’s face. The frozen coffee produced a
thunk. 1LT Leinbaugh shook it again.
“That’s enough,” said the colonel,“…I can hear.”
A leader takes time to see the situation fully.
My two cents.

This is a force protection issue. Wearing the uniform off base puts you, your family, and your unit at great risk. If you can wear civies in, change at work, then after change back into civies, hide your uniform in a bag and go home.

I am in the Navy and we have the same problem. I remember one time a group of us were getting ready for deployment and were still on duty and went off base to get something to eat because everything on base was closed. Someone came up to us and started chastising us about being in uniform eating off base after duty hours. We tried explaining to him that we were still on duty and just getting something to eat. Another guy whisked that guy away and went outside with him for a conversation. Turns out the guy that was chastising us was a butter bar, and the guy that took him away was a master chief (E9).