Marine Corps’ “sleeves down” policy ended

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The Marine Corps’ two-year-old “sleeves down” policy ended with an announcement late Tuesday night on the Marines’ official social media platforms. But a spokesman for the commandant, Gen. Jim Amos, said the change has been under consideration for some time.

“The Commandant has been leaning into it for awhile now, as he has taken to heart the many conversations he’s had with thousands of his [noncommissioned officers] in recent months,” Lt. Col. David Nevers said in an email. “After speaking to a theater full of corporals and sergeants yesterday at Quantico, he decided it was time to announce the change.”

The change takes effect March 9 and affects Marines wearing their desert camouflage utilities in noncombat areas. A Marine administrative message, No. 078/14, was published Wednesday formalizing the move. It’s signed by Maj. Gen. Mike Regner, the staff director at Marine Corps headquarters.

One of the biggest early policy changes of Amos’s tenure as commandant, the decision to eliminate rolled-up sleeves on the Marines’ summer camouflage utility uniform was hotly contested from the start. The Marine Corps Uniform Board pushed the change through in 2011 over the objections of Marines surveyed about the issue, who voted with a 61 percent majority to keep their rolled sleeves.

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