In the US, if someone appears in a uniform of ANY organization, then that person is assumed to be acting on behalf of that organization. If I showed up somewhere dressed as a den mother for the Boy Scouts (actually, for the Cub Scouts), people would assume that I was there in an official capacity as a den mother. If I appeared in a sports team uniform, people would assume that I was a spokesperson for that team.
It’s actually against the law to be actively involved in a political activity while in military uniform in the US. It’s a court-martial offense.
I thought this blogger had a very good take on this situation. I’m retired military and work around active duty soldier’s every day … there’s a lot of blame to go around …
The Hatch Act makes it illegal for any federal employee to engage in political activity while in uniform or while on duty. When I was a fed we were not to have any campaign materials or even pictures of the candidates in our offices. I believe the only exception was if you had a personal picture of yourself with the candidate.
It doesn’t matter. You cannot say anything or do anything while in uniform as that may be mistaken as official policy on behalf of the US military. While the military is inextricably involved in the political process, the members may not appear in any official capacity at any political event, and any statement made in uniform either forces the military to refute the soldier or forces the military into committing to something that they cannot legally commit to, being under civilian control.
I only knew about the military uniform problem because my husband was in the Air Force for 12 years, and I was married to him for most of that time. I got exposed to a lot of military information, from him and from other people in the service or married to service members.
Perhaps it’s not candidates but elected officials. You know how Presidents always have their military guy sitting front and center during the State of the Union Address? That’s legitimate because it’s considered an honor. Arguably every elected official is campaigning all the time, but if the event is not specifically for that purpose but for honoring guests or the like it is legitimate, like a Veteran’s day event.
It gets complicated. The easiest way to avoid having problems is to clear your appearance through your base’s Public Affairs office. They will approve or disapprove and put specific conditions on your appearance such as what you may or may not say. If they approve it it’s all kosher and you may participate, but you may not make the decision to attend in uniform for yourself like this guy apparently did, and you certainly may not make off-the-cuff statements that potentially embarrass your chain of command or the military as a whole. Rule of thumb: if you make a declarative statement it may not be about policy, operational information, troop deployments, or anything political.
That usually happens with the sitting president. But you are mistaken. Those are not political rallies. The president is allowed to act as the president and commander in chief. For instance Obama at Fort Bragg in front of the troops making a speech about the end of the Iraq War. Or Bush on the aircraft carrier making a speech about the end of the Iraq War. The President often uses an audience of soldiers to speak about military policy, in and out of the election cycle. And those soldiers are not there to support the president politically, they are there to hear their commander speak about an issue regarding them. One of the perks of being president, they get to look presidential.
What you will not see is soldiers in uniform at campaign events or at political fund raisers. There is a very distinct difference.
