Navy Punishes Sailors Over 'Make Aircrew Great Again' Patches Worn at Trump Speech

In addition to all of the uniform regulations being violated by putting this patch on a uniform, there is a federal statute called the Hatch Act in play. Basically, this statute says if you're a government employee, you may not participate in partisan elections. The reason for this is Government is supposed to serve all citizens, and the appearance of partisanship by non-elected officials creates the impression of you won't serve members of your opposition party. Yes, you can vote and participate in the non-partisan part of elections (like poll-worker, precinct judge, etc), but never is any non-elected government employee allowed to participate in the partisan side of elections.

This applies to the military because we want soldiers and sailors to work for their commander in chief, regardless of party affiliation. These soldiers altered their uniforms to show support for the current commander-in-chief. But what happens if he doesn't win? Are you still going to support the current president, or will the incoming President need to be worried you won't? I know senior NCO's and General officers who take the Hatch Act so seriously, they've chosen not to vote for any federal position.

In this case, it would be appropriate to place the junior enlisted on Captain's Mast for altering their uniforms. The Hatch act may be a stretch unless you can 1) prove they were aware of the Hatch Act and 2) intended to violate the act. Intent may not be a major factor, but you're dealing with highly impressionable young adults, and I can envision an argument saying they thought it was ok because they saw an officer or NCO do it. That said, if any senior NCO's or officers were involved, it would be fair to court-martial them for Hatch Act violations. They all have had training on the Hatch act, and they willingly violated it.

Silly... my units use wear unauthorized patches, weapons and uniform items all the time... in all 3 services I served in... Especially the USAF.

Oh c'mon...give me a break.

First off, sounds like a slap on the wrist, at the "unit level"...shame those natty patches got taken up though.

In other news...try looking up some of the "acceptable" unit patches from just a decade or two ago.