It’s well into a tense election season, and the Navy and Marine Corps are reminding their troops of what they can and cannot do when it comes to political activity.
Navy and Marine leaders have until Sept. 15 to bring troops up to speed on “permissible and impermissible” political activities, the services said in respective messages issued July 17 and Aug. 12.
Service members are held to a higher standard than the general public when it comes to expressing their political beliefs. Those standards are governed by policy and enforced by the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
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“Yes, do vote. Yes, it’s OK for you to be a member of a political party. No, it’s not OK for you to wear your uniform to rallies, because it connotes that the military is supporting this candidate,” retired Lt. Col. Joe Plenzler, a former Marine infantryman and current volunteer election poll worker, told Military.com in an interview Wednesday.
“We don’t pick winners or losers as a service,” he said of the rules surrounding an apolitical military. “Everyone’s free to vote their conscience, but with civilian control of the military, it is absolutely important we maintain not just the perception of it, but the reality of it.”
Generally, the rules bar service members from appearing partisan while representing the military, including while in…
