# Off duty military personnel not allowed to be in pictures? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 17, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698 "2010-05-17T01:12:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698/21 "2010-05-18T02:37:00Z")
1. The local newspaper has run many stories on current and local military service people from every branch, complete with photos. Wedding/Engagement photos section is also sprinkled with photos of members of the military. I personally know a few marines and army guys who have a myspace/facebook page with photos of themselves. 2. 18 years old, in the military, AND moonlighting at a fast food drive thru? Wow this guy keeps busy. Maybe he’s AWOL or on the run, and doesn’t want his pic posted and his location tracked down. I’d go back and deliberately snap a bunch of pics, then post them on my facebook page with captions like “RON from the Burger King on mystreet in Anytown. Nice guy but very secretive!” ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698/22 "2010-05-18T14:02:31Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > He doesn’t want his CO to know he’s moonlighting, & seeing a photo online could tip somebody off. Generally moonlighting was never a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698/23 "2010-05-18T14:05:58Z")
I don’t photograph well, so I don’t like having my picture taken. I wonder if I could get away with using this excuse… I’d tell people I believed that cameras would steal my soul, if I thought I could get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698/24 "2010-05-18T16:37:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Generally moonlighting was never a problem. I don’t think having a second job in itself is a problem. But I believe you have to seek the permission of the military first before taking the job. So this guy might be moonlighting without authorization. That’s just one possibility. Others include: - The guy was just being an ass. - The guy was pretending to be in the military to look tougher than he really is. - The guy has some other reason to not want to be photographed and made up the military reason. - The guy is in the military but he’s an idiot who thinks that’s really a rule. - The guy is part of a Special Ops Green Beret Seal Delta Force NCIS Unit that’s been assigned to work undercover to protect America from terrorists who are trying to infiltrate to fast food industry. Special classified top secret orders require that the members of this unit never be photographed. You’ve never heard of these special classified top secret orders because they are in fact special and classified and top secret. But members of this unit are allowed to tell random strangers they meet in a restaurant about these orders if necessary. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698/25 "2010-05-18T17:57:53Z")
> [@CutterJohn](#): > > Once, I took some extra leave as a recruiting assistant(I can’t recall what the program was called now, but basically you got a week extra leave and got to follow the recruiter around during the day, telling high school kids how nifty everything was). The program is the Recruiters Assistance Program. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698/26 "2010-05-18T18:11:34Z")
My office was assisting in the marketing of a U.S. military technology forum/convention thingy. It had to do with non-lethal weaponry. It was mostly defense technology people coming and there were several keynotes speakers from the Navy and Air Force. We had to get approval from the… uh… General Counsel? Um, I don’t remember, I wasn’t the one who had to talk to them, but it was some division that oversees various legal matters… Anyway, they were vetting a lot of our stuff. Some of the initial stuff we sent to them had photos of the keynote speakers (MGs, RADMs, VADMs) and we got in doo-doo. Apparently, there is some kind of rule about not using the photos of active service men and women in advertising. So we could have the person’s name and tell the world they were attending and would be dong an hour long presentation on blowing stuff up, but we couldn’t use _images_ of them. But the retired guy was fine. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698/27 "2010-05-18T20:56:45Z")
I vote BS. Nobody would have known he was in the military unless he told you (that is, assuming he really is). If his whereabouts are so secret then why did he come up and tell you about it? ---
**Author:** ![flano1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f14d63/32.png) [@flano1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flano1)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698/28 "2010-05-18T22:01:52Z")
[QUOTE I know this myself because I WAS the man behind the Grassy knoll. .[/QUOTE] Hell of a shot from BEHIND the grassy knoll! ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698/29 "2010-05-19T02:10:28Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I don’t think having a second job in itself is a problem. But I believe you have to seek the permission of the military first before taking the job. So this guy might be moonlighting without authorization. That’s a possibility, but it was so routine during my service, that if the guy didn’t have permission, then it’s because he was hiding something. Of course, that was (doing quick math) 15 years ago (holy crap! It’s been that long?). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698/30 "2010-05-19T15:11:36Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Won’t you be shocked when you look at the pics and see a headless/faceless figure behind the counter?! There’s a guy at the Sleepy Hollow McDonald’s like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/off-duty-military-personnel-not-allowed-to-be-in-pictures/539698.md?page=1)