Base commander authorizing the beret for CAP.

[JoeTomasone]

The corollary, of course, is that CAP should adhere to base regulations, even if CAP regs are more permissive...when in Rome and all that.

THAT, my friend, is a preposterous suggestion.   Do you seriously think that USAF folks would follow CAP regulations while at a non-base CAP facility instead of USAF regs?    Do members of the Army, Marines, and Navy abandon their regulations and follow USAF regulations while on a USAF base?   Of course not.   We should not either.

The correct answer to this whole scenario has been posted time and time again, but some of you can't seem to resist inventing incorrect solutions to this problem -- which is largely theoretical to begin with.

[SarDragon]

Do members of the Army, Marines, and Navy abandon their regulations and follow USAF regulations while on a USAF base?

Weeelllllll - that turns into "choose your battles" situation. I spent 2 1/5 years on an Air Base while in the Navy. They were eternally irritated with us for not participating in their exercises. For instance, we had an interesting incident when the fire alarm in the barracks got pulled around 0730. When everyone evacuated the building, the AF folks were trying to haul off the Navy folks for not being in designated exercise apparel. Most of us were just trying to go to work, and our O-in-C was hot when half the work force was late.

OTOH, we had to play by a lot of their rules just to avoid the hassles of the Article 15 system. The Security forces folks were in perpetual need of grande size condoms.

[Майор Хаткевич]

OTOH, we had to play by a lot of their rules just to avoid the hassles of the Article 15 system. The Security forces folks were in perpetual need of grande size condoms.

I just cleaned the keyboard last week!

[ZigZag911]

The corollary, of course, is that CAP should adhere to base regulations, even if CAP regs are more permissive...when in Rome and all that.

THAT, my friend, is a preposterous suggestion.   Do you seriously think that USAF folks would follow CAP regulations while at a non-base CAP facility instead of USAF regs?    Do members of the Army, Marines, and Navy abandon their regulations and follow USAF regulations while on a USAF base?   Of course not.   We should not either.

Are you kidding?

CAP is the (sometime) auxiliary of the USAF.

Nothing is more likely to damage our relationship with the Air Force than to have CAP personnel needlessly playing barracks lawyer with the generals and colonels commanding Air Force bases!

Just to be clear, I am not suggesting we violate any CAP regulations.

I am saying that we can, on occasion, refrain from exercising what is, in fact, a privilege under CAP rules out of respect for the wishes of our parent organization.

BTW, even as far as CAP is concerned, I believe commanders have the right, within regulations and certain limitations, to specify the 'uniform of the day' for their unit.

[Eclipse]

BTW, even as far as CAP is concerned, I believe commanders have the right, within regulations and certain limitations, to specify the 'uniform of the day' for their unit.

Yes, they do, at least for seniors (not so for cadets unless its the FCU or we issue the items), in fact I would agree that anyone in the chain of command could do so.

We are not in the military chain of command.

[AlphaSigOU]

We are not in the military chain of command.

And we don't have UCMJ 'dinging power', either.

[JoeTomasone]

Just to be clear, I am not suggesting we violate any CAP regulations.

I am saying that we can, on occasion, refrain from exercising what is, in fact, a privilege under CAP rules out of respect for the wishes of our parent organization.

BTW, even as far as CAP is concerned, I believe commanders have the right, within regulations and certain limitations, to specify the 'uniform of the day' for their unit.

That's not what you said. 

The corollary, of course, is that CAP should adhere to base regulations, even if CAP regs are more permissive...when in Rome and all that.

What you suggested is that we adhere to the regulations of another service, which is a far cry from simply not wearing a given (article of a) uniform due to local base policy.    However, even that is not a cut-and-dried situation; if the local base policy prohibited black boots and stated that only tan were authorized, we would not be able to simply change boots to meet the policy; we would instead need to involve the SD to clarify if the policy applied to CAP.   If the answer was in the affirmative, then you would not be able to wear BDUs on the base.   However, I do agree that if the policy restricts something that would not put a member into conflict with CAP regulations, then we absolutely should adhere to that policy.    So, for example, if the policy prohibits wearing Camelbacks, you simply don't wear a Camelback.

However, we cannot blindly obey USAF regulations when they conflict with CAP regulations as you seem to imply. 

[N Harmon]

In my neck of the woods, the Blue Beret is a mark of shame and disloyalty to the Wing. Not officially, but the phrase "Blue Berry" is a joke in my neck of the woods.

And commanders in your "neck of the woods" tolerate such childishness?

[davidsinn]

In my neck of the woods, the Blue Beret is a mark of shame and disloyalty to the Wing. Not officially, but the phrase "Blue Berry" is a joke in my neck of the woods.

And commanders in your "neck of the woods" tolerate such childishness?

Sounds like Blue Beret is not the only organization with an attitude problem...

[ZigZag911]

JoeT, clearly what we have here is a 'failure to communicate'...obviously what I thought I said was not what you understood...fair enough, happens now and then...for the record, however it came across, I did not meant that CAP should 'blindly' follow base regulations, but rather that we should adopt a cooperative, respectful attitude in working with military authorities, especially when we are guests on their installations.

[JoeTomasone]

JoeT, clearly what we have here is a 'failure to communicate'...obviously what I thought I said was not what you understood...fair enough, happens now and then...for the record, however it came across, I did not meant that CAP should 'blindly' follow base regulations, but rather that we should adopt a cooperative, respectful attitude in working with military authorities, especially when we are guests on their installations.

OK, that I can co-sign.   

Of course, what you say should be a given...  But obviously it hasn't always been.