Feminine Marines now not should put on pantyhose when sporting their service or costume uniforms, in response to a Monday replace to the service’s uniform laws.
“Efficient instantly, the damage of hosiery with skirts is non-compulsory,” the order learn. “When sporting hosiery, nevertheless, pores and skin tone harmonizing nylon shall be worn.”
Beforehand, Marines have been required to put on full-length, nylon pantyhose in both pores and skin or smoky-toned hues, relying on whether or not they have been sporting their service or costume blues skirt.
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For Marines who now select to forgo sporting pantyhose, they have to don both no-show socks or shoe liners, “for hygienic functions and to keep away from abrasions or blisters brought on by direct contact and rubbing between the foot and shoe.”
The change additionally removes the choice for Marines to put on any grey or smoky-toned pantyhose, with black-toned tights solely allowed when sporting trousers.
The replace additional famous that “when slacks are worn as a part of the night costume, blue costume, or service uniforms, both black oxfords or black costume flats shall be worn on the particular person’s possibility, besides that oxfords shall be prescribed for drill, parades, and different events which require practical uniformity.”
Pregnant Marines are allowed to decide on between oxfords, flats or pumps, even whereas sporting the skirt.
The Marine Corps and the Army have been the final two branches to keep up the hosiery requirement for feminine troops. The Air Drive first eliminated their mandate in 2021, with the Navy doing the identical in 2022.
Not like a scarcity of cammies that not too long ago drove adjustments to uniform laws, this alteration stemmed purely from Marines’ behests.
Based on a Marine Corps uniform board survey first reviewed by Marine Corps Occasions, Marines requested the pantyhose requirement be dropped. The survey shall be open for Marines to voice various their uniform-related issues till March 26.
The final time the Corps modified a uniform regulation on the request of feminine Marines was in September, after girls advocated for the service to permit feminine workers noncommissioned officers and officers to put on slacks with their night costume uniform. It was the final uniform that had a skirt-only mandate for girls within the Corps.
“Any time once you make a suggestion to the bigger establishment and also you’re heard, and your suggestion is accepted, it feels good,” Col. Kelly Frushour, one of many Marines who advocated for the skirt change, instructed Army.com in September.
“I feel it is an important factor for Marines to have the ability to select.”
— Rachel Nostrant is a Marine Corps veteran and freelance journalist, with work revealed in Reuters, New York Journal, Army Occasions and extra.
