Last month, some eagle-eyed Redditors noticed that there was something that seemed a little bit unusual about Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith’s uniform.
In the picture posted to the Marine subreddit, Smith was not wearing the commandant’s official dress cap, which features golden oak leaves on the crown as well as the visor. Instead, Smith appeared to be wearing the dress cover for all other Marine generals, which lacks the gold ornamentation on the crown.
As any current and former service member knows, uniforms are always a very sensitive topic, especially for the Marine Corps, which was founded in 1775 but didn’t allow Marines to carry umbrellas while wearing their dress uniforms until 2019. (It is also one of the only institutions where grown adults will scream at each other until they are red in the face over the color of one’s socks.)
So it was with great trepidation that Task & Purpose gently inquired if Smith had eschewed the commandant’s dress cap.
It turns out the Reddit folks were correct: Not only does Smith not wear the commandant’s official cover, but he has a waiver allowing him to do so, a Marine Corps official confirmed
Even though only one person in the Marine Corps can wear the commandant’s cover, it is still a waiverable uniform item, the official told Task & Purpose.
You might think that Smith, as the leader of the most formidable fighting organization since King Leonidas of Sparta took a stroll with 300 of his friends, would be able to decide for himself which cover to wear with his Dress Blues, but no.
The commandant did not write himself a waiver, the Corps official explained. He had to submit his request to the Marine Corps Uniform Board for its approval.
Smith sought the uniform waiver due to his “personal preference” on the matter, the official said.
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No further information was available on why the commandant has opted to wear the standard cap for general officers. Smith declined to comment through his spokesman.
This is not the first time that a commandant has had to go through the same rigamarole as other Marines. In 2017, the Marines released a video in which Gen. Robert Neller’s personal car got a mandatory inspection.
That’s one mystery solved. Now, lance corporals can go back to focusing on things that really matter, such as whether they are allowed to sport mustaches, and when exactly is the right time to wear the mythical “boat cloak.”
