Marines ordered to take official photos for no logical reason whatsoever "Makes perfect sense."

Marines ordered to take official photos for no logical reason whatsoever

Interesting article. Interesting that they didn't state what promotion boards and special duty screeners do with the pictures. They use them to screen candidates based on military appearance. It never once occurred to me that they could be used to exclude anybody from promotion based on their race.
Twenty years in the Marine Corps and more than that since retirement and I never heard or imagined that happening.

So what did they use official photos for? Mostly to screen out fat bodies. They couldn't miss that one knucklehead that almost had his belt on the wrong way around in his picture. (I met THAT guy and being the nice guy I am, I pointed it out, and every Marine present had a good laugh!) You might not want to send somebody on embassy duty that has visible tattoos when in the Service C uniform. You might even spot the Gunny that slept on the sofa in the enlisted club all night and showed up for his interview for Drill Instructor Duty with no shave and muddy shoes. First words out of the screeners mouth were "You really don't want to go on DI duty do you Gunny?" His orders were cut before he got back to work.

It can come down to the tiniest detail on a promotion board with a finite number of seats available. How does each Marine do on the PFT (Physical Fitness Test), have they completed all their professional schools, read all the books on the Commandant's Reading List, do volunteer work in the community? (That last one was somewhat murky) It could come down to looking at a picture of their ribbons and badges and seeing if they had all the stars they rated on a campaign ribbon, or if they were missing a ribbon, or if they took the time to get them on straight. It couldn't have been a beauty contest, because they kept promoting me.

NO WHERE do I think race ever enters into what the promotion boards do with these official pictures. I only had to have four taken in my entire career, not counting that Boot Camp one where they hang a Dress Blue jacket on you with the back cut away. The photographers could make you look better than you were with the application of a few clothes pins on your shirt and having you suck in your gut on cue, or they could let you look sloppy as a soup sandwich. If you came in and gave them an attitude they would even let you have your official promotion picture take with your belt on backwards. My number was 6 on that promotion board. I got promoted the first day we were eligible. I always wondered if that Marine ever saw another promotion.

You can bet that somebody is looking at the pictures and deciding who needs to be on weight control and who needs to go to NCO School or the Staff NCO Academy and learn how to wear a uniform. Wouldn't surprise me at all if the unit First Sergeant sent each Marine to get a picture with instructions to report back to them to have it inspected to see if it's satisfactory. They'd also have to report to the First Sergeant to be inspected and stand on a scale, prior to getting their picture taken.

 

Uncle Sam's Miss guided Children are not what they used to be. Talked to a WW2 Marine, with a Koren and Nom men at the table and they thanked me for my time from the late 80' - 06. Then they were listen to this kid and don't drink my beer kid.

 

Odd...other then the photo at P.I. I never had to have a photo for any promotions or special duty, including recruiting duty. Now THERE is one duty that one would think the Corps would want to look at candidates and put the best possible face in public.
Of course, there are some areas that photos come become a liability...the inteligence field immediately comes to mind.

 

I never had pics like that in the Airforce or Navy.

 

I think you're onto something, but it could get worse.

The article says "For years, Marine officers and noncommissioned officers were required to have a photograph taken in order to be promoted or screened for special training." I only had to submit pictures for SNCO and officer promotions. What has changed is that now the Commandant says “Marines shall have a photograph taken annually (every 365 days) for placement into the Marine’s Official Military Personnel File (OMPF)” That would mean every Marine. So if PFC Schmuckatelli was on leave on January 6 2020, in the Washington DC area, they might not have a file picture of him. But now they will.

Sounds like something that could get ugly in the future. Instead of the old report we had to submit that asked how many of each color and sex of each rank in a unit you could have some computer in DC scanning the pictures of a whole Division. What if it found that this unit or that wasn't correctly "ethnically balanced" and started shuffling Marines around? So you take a bunch of perfectly functioning combat units and swap a bunch of Marines around, from the Commanding Officer and the First Sergeant to the lowest Private based on nothing more than the shade of their skin in a file photo. This immediately degrades the combat effectiveness of all the units. Then you blame it on "systemic racism, whiteness, insufficient diversity, gender bias" or whatever new made-up term you hear on the evening news.

How did the Marine Corps ever survive 245 years without a Defense Secretary to show us the way?

 

In the AF the pictures are optional. I always used to opt out.

 

I always recommend the Air Force to anybody considering a career in the military.

I guess Marines had an option. Submit a picture or don't get considered for promotion.

 

Pictures make it easier for the enemy to identify you for future elimination.

 

I knew a few that became career Privates .

 

Yes, in the Army, in my day, we always had a pre-promotion board photo to go into your promotion packet/file. I still got a copy of a photo (the photographer gave me the extra) when I pinned on SSG/E-6. It was mandatory and if your packet wasn't complete, to include photo, kiss your chance for promotion goodbye until they met again, usually in about a year. And, we also had a photo coming out of Basic Training...

 

We had several photos taken, graduation from Basic, graduation from A.I.T. first deployment, and retirement! If you had scars or tats that stood out, or anything else, that got photographed for later ident purposes, but wasn't included in your packet for any Joe schmuck general to see!

Now, any one assigned to special ops, got a separate packet that had zero photos, and that packet was the only one anyone had access to to matter the rank or importance, your normal one got tucked away someplace safe until you retired or killed. Within that packet there were notations of all the normal things, your shooting score, your P.T. rating, hight, weight, all that, but ranks and promotions were kinda weird in how they were listed, and it wasn't until I got promoted to CMSgt. that I found out why! I also found out why most JSOC don't get promoted very often, which is sad, but has its purpose!

 

What do you mean 'JSOC don't get promoted very often'? Most of the guys I worked within JSOC got promoted as soon as possible, as soon as they could pin it on given time-in-grade and time-in-service, and to be honest many were promoted much before and rightly so! Most of Combat Arms MOS personnel got promotion as soon as possible if their record was clean, knew a lot of young E-8s...but maybe you are referring to 'support' personnel in JSOC and not so much the trigger-pulling, door-kicking snake eaters? Air Force promotions were always slower than Army or Navy or even Marine, as you well know, so that might be a factor also as think you were one of those Air Force Pararescue nutcases that jumped into trouble with both feet.

 

Most times, it was the Guys in the rear with the gear that got all the promotions, and not us out on the sharp end! We were so isolated from the rest, it could be a year or more before your promotion actually caught up to you, I Know, I got "Made" a CMsgt a full 16 months before it showed up in my pay or on my sleeves ( Had to fight to get the back pay) others got promoted to a certain level, say E-7/8 and stayed there till the end, especially the Snake Eaters and Boats guys, I always felt they got seriously cheated! Most of the time, if you promoted a guy, it usually meant he got pulled from the teams at a critical time, and needs of the service generally delayed if not prevented him from getting his promotions, often well deserved!

 

Every Soldier, Marine, Sailor, and Aviator now have to have their photos done before they deploy. Maybe the corp is just prepping up front. Get every one out of the way and one less check the block before a deployment/float/ invade to retake Taiwan type deal.

 

We never had photos on my ship, even before deployment - 1982/1983.

 

Hmmm,, sounds familiar,, what was your ship in 82-83 ,,, if ya dont mind my asking ,, and your destination ??

 

It is 2021. After I retired in the Army in 2007 after two deployments into Iraq, it became the norm some time during that timeframe to release an official photo if they were killed somehow. KIA or accidents. We also have the internet on ships now as well, along with on FOBs in theater. You should see some of the shit these kids do overseas. I think I have a highlight real of Girls do Iraq or something from 2003 that was found on the MWR computers.

 

And my crew was mightily pleased when we got a softdrink gedunk machine, for times ship's store was closed.
No cellphones, no internut. One shipmate had a TI99 micro computer, another had an Atari 800. I carried a 110 pocket camera when ashore. Had to mail off the 110 rolls to be processed. Things have really changed in forty years!