July 25,
2008: The military has always had a
problem keeping up with changes in fashion and how it interacts with uniforms.
New regulations are always needed to deal with this. If the military does not
react, the troops get burned eventually, and morale suffers. So even the U.S.
Marine Corps, known for their discipline and fondness for tradition, keeps up.
For example, when rules for female marines and high heeled shoes were issued,
the maximum height of heels was set at 2.5 inches. But it turned out that there
were very few shoes with 2.5 inch high heels. So new regs now allow for three
inch heels (a popular height for women's shoes). Another change dealt with the
popularity of wearing running tights under the official USMC running shorts.
This was now allowed, as long as the tights were no more than an inch longer
than the shorts.
Every
year, all the U.S. services issue dozens of new regulations like this each year,
and have been doing so for decades. But
as new fashion ideas and products have proliferated in the last few decades,
the military bureaucrats have had to work harder to keep up.
