Why Does The Government Mandate That Our Military Men And Women Should Wear Uniforms

When did the US military start charging soldiers, sailors, and airmen for their meals?

Probably not what you mean, but a related subject is the Wardroom Mess in the US Navy. The officers assigned to a ship are collectively known as the Wardroom. The wardroom also refers to the compartment on the ship where the officers take their meals and relax afterwards.The Wardroom Mess is essentially a private eating club whose members are the officers of the ship. Each meal taken by an officer is accounted for and he pays for them at the end of the month to the Wardroom Mess Treasurer, which is a rotating assignment among the officers.While the ship is in port, particularly in home port, officers generally eat at home or elsewhere, so the officer’s mess bill is pretty small. However, when underway, the officer will eat all meals in the wardroom, so the bill can be quite large.The mess bill was calculated by how much the Wardroom spent on food that month. The food in the Wardroom is separate from the crew’s mess, which comes from ship’s provisions. The Wardroom can get food from the crew’s mess, but will be charged for anything taken. Often, the culinary specialist in charge of the Wardroom Mess will go out into the local economy and purchase food. When overseas, this can result in some spectacular meals, as long as the culinary specialist is good. In my experience, these culinary specialists take pride in their cooking and when they can get food from Italy, Spain, or some other exotic location, they do their best to create great meals.So while the officers get BAS, as mentioned in other answers, the mess bill is not related to or capped by the BAS amount.

Does the US military still issue "dog tags" to its members?

When I was active duty in the Marine Corps, 1975 through 1978 followed by two years in the inactive ready reserves, we were issued ID tags. I still have at least one of mine on my key chain. I don’t remember calling them “dog tags.” I think “dog tags” is Army terminology. We referred to them as ID tags as I recall.I don’t know what the Air Force calls them. The Navy probably calls them ID tags, but you can never be sure about those squids . . . I mean, sailors.The assembly consisted of one long chain with another short chain looped through the long chain. There were identical metal tags hanging on each chain.Looking at the one on my key chain I see that the first line contains my last name and suffix. The second line has my first and middle initial. (If you don’t have a middle initial the Corps inserts, parenthetically, NMI. It means “No Middle Initial.” I guess they would put that on your ID tags too, but I don’t know.) The third line has my service number, which is also tattooed on the bottom of my feet. I’m kidding. I don’t have any tattoos. (God, I hate those things. The Third Reich gave them out for free.) At the time I served we used our social security number as our service number. I think it was in 1971 that service numbers were no longer issued. At that time your social security number became your service number. Following that, on the same line, the third line, is my blood type. The fourth line identifies my branch of service as USMC followed by my marital status—“M” for married, in my case. The fifth line identifies me as an Episcopalian with the abbreviation “EPISC.”ID tags were a part of our uniform issue which we packed, all of it, into one sea bag, also part of the uniform issue. We were required to maintain the ID tags and wear them while in uniform, where I served at MCAS El Toro. Once a year we put it all on display for the IG. If I remember correctly, it seems we were issued two identical sets of ID tags.