Free Republic

This Marine should have known better than to ask. Should servicemembers have the privilege to annul their contracts simply because of a legal change with which they disagree? Or because of a perceived grievance that the DoD “changed the deal” on them? When you sign the contract, you agree to subject yourself to policies you might not like (even ones not yet in effect); the best you can do is to serve out your contract honorably and vote different candidates into office.

I would not want a member of my unit to have a tattoo of any race-related emblem, be it white supremacy, black liberation, or MS-13. The Marine Corps is by and large an organization of tense, violent young men required to trust each other under the most demanding of circumstances. Having grounds to question the racial loyalties of the Marine next to you is conducive to success neither in training nor in operations.

Regardless, this debate is for moot. The CMC doesn’t like ink, and what he says on this goes. Applicants also get rejected for tattoos of girlfriends’ names, nautical stars, tribal designs, and Pokemon characters. I would advise any teens considering getting tattoos to bear this in mind if they are thinking even idly about enlisting.

The difference is, a white soldier a century ago would have had no moral ground on which to oppose serving with a black soldier. A black or Hispanic soldier in 2010, however, could rightfully perceive the flag as portending a racist message.

Is the flag inherently racist? No, of course not. And there are many who bear it without race-related intentions. But there are also a decent number who do carry that flag as a symbol for a racist cause, and if I were a black man in a predominantly white organization, it would be hard not to have my suspicions.

With that possibility in mind, given two applicants identical in every way but for such a tattoo, I would select the one without it. And that really does describe the dilemma face by Marine Corps recruiters, who now have far more potential recruits than they have spots available at boot camp.

There are a lot of black Marines who would feel otherwise (I’m not making a judgment either way as to the validity of such feelings). You would risk unit cohesion to allow a young man with a stupid tattoo to join when there is no shortage of other perfectly good recruits who would enter without such baggage?

I’m an active-duty enlisted Marine, and I don’t want that in my Corps.

Why do you say that? The Corps is a selective institution, the joining of which is a privilege, not a reserved right. Further, with the weakened economy, enlistment rates have increased dramatically, to the point where new recruits often wait almost a full year before shipping to boot camp. And the Commandant himself made this more-rigorous tattoo policy a personal priority of his long before Obama assumed office.

I don’t for a second doubt the veracity of this story. But outrage over it is ridiculous and misplaced.