Quote Originally Posted by Jock Scot View Post
I am not at all convinced that Scots kilt culture and American military(in a civilian context)culture are mixing well. To me if you are wearing the kilt(tartan) then Scots traditions should prevail.
...In my view, leave the medal ribbons and other military badges at home when wearing the kilt as a civilian...
I think my "eye" has been struck by a similar thing, Jock. At our local Games many American wear an incongruous mix of Scottish civilian and US military attire.

Specifically, they wear US military khaki shirts complete with sleeve patches, epaulette pins, collar pins, ribbon bars, and so forth, exactly as they would while serving in uniform, but these shirts are combined with civilian kilts, sporrans, hose, and headdress.

Thinking about why it strikes my eye as odd, I suppose it stems from two factors

1) the mixing of civilian and military attire in general can look odd, even if the two are from the same nationality: would these same men wear their completely badged uniform shirt with Hawai'ian patterned shorts, flip-flops, and top it all off with a fedora? Perhaps they would; but that too would strike my eye as strange-looking.

2) for the last 40 years or so I've seen many thousands of examples of the kilt worn as a British military garment and my eye has got quite used to the sorts of shirts, kilts, sporrans, hose, headdress, etc which co-ordinate together to create the image of the Scottish soldier. Now, if a person were to be dressed like a Scottish soldier but wearing a Pickelhaube it would strike just about anyone as strange.
It strikes my eye equally strange to see a fully badged US military shirt worn with the kilt, especially the shirts with the sewn-in ribs which delineate the traditional pressing locations, because the shirts worn customarily with the kilt in the British military are nothing like that:



It might not be clear from this small photo, but these shirts are worn in the Army with no badges or pins patches of any sort whatsover. No epaulette pins, no collar badges, no sleeve patches, no medal ribbons, nothing.

His badge of rank is worn on the wristband. Corporals and Sergeants wear theirs on armbands: they are not sewn onto the shirt.

The shirt itself lacks the sewn-in ribs that US military, police, fire, and EMT shirts have.

Now, people who have served in the US military have earned all those pins and patches and badges and they can proudly wear them whenever and wherever they please and it's none of my business. But I can't help it if it looks strange to my eye to see a fully badged US military shirt worn with Hawai'ian shorts, Lederhosen, or a Scottish kilt (especially a blatantly civilian one).