Originally Posted by
skchin
As a brother of an active military personel, I've heard that many enlisted soliders will travel in military uniform when they are not authorized to do so. For instance, if they are on leave (vacation), not on way to their duty post - they are not authorized to wear uniform and told to stay low profile and blend in with the general public when traveling.
I personally experienced 2 weeks ago on my ATL-LAS flight in First, when a 21 year old solider in uniform heading back to his reserve unit was upgraded to first. The FA on duty asked if he would like any thing to drink. To my suprise, he ordered a coke and rum while in his uniform, then ordered a second alcoholic drink. I should have scared the crap out of him by asking for his chain of command.
While I will not debate whether or not the service member you refer to in your post was authorized to be traveling in uniform (there are a hundreds of regulations allowing or disallowing this), I am rather offended by your implication that a service member is not authorized to consume alcoholic beverages while in uniform! Just because a service member is in uniform does NOT mean they are actually "on duty". A perfect example of this is the Marine Corps Birthday which is celebrated every November 10th since 1775. Marines celebrate this event in various methods but most attend sponsored Birthday Balls where alcohol is provided and Marines wear their dress uniforms.
Also I would guess that your brother is probably an officer simply by the wording of your message and the fact that you would "scare the crap out of him by asking for his chain of command." First off, as a former enlisted Marine, I would have laughed at any "civilian" asking for information on my chain of command for this purpose as quite frankly it's non of your damn business to pry into whether I'm authorized to drink while in uniform. If you would like to make it your business then in the great words of Jack Nicholson, "I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand to post".