In an amazing coincidence, the Secretary of Defense has distributed an unclassified message for widest possible dissemination that touches on a couple things that we’ve been talking about here lately. It’s basically a reiteration of long-standing DoD policy and regulations covering the actions of military personnel vis-a-vis elections and political candidates. Note that most of these policies deal with acts committed while serving in an official capacity (i.e., in uniform, explicitly identifying self by rank and service prior to making political statements, on-duty, etc.). I’ll quote the salient points:

General Policy. As a matter of long-standing policy, DoD personnel acting an their official capacities may not engage in activities that associate DoD with any partisan political campaign or election, candidate, cause or issue.

Inquiries from political campaign organizations. DoD personnel must forward all inquiries from political campaign organizations to a public affairs officer (PAO) for awareness and appropriate action.

Installation commanders will ensure that candidates who visit military installations to conduct official business do not engage in any political campaign or election activity during the visit. The preceding prohibition does not apply to the President, the Vice President, or the Speaker of the House of Representatives. To avoid the appearance of preferential treatment, installation commanders should offer all candidates for national office who are not current members of Congress or serving governmental officials the same access to installations as any other unofficial visitor.

Media coverage of installation visits. When an installation commander invites a candidate to an installation to participate in official business, and the media seeks to cover the event, the candidate may appear on camera and in photographs as an official participant, but may not make a statement or respond to media queries while on the installation. The Secretary of Defense may authorize exceptions to this policy on a case by case basis for the Pentagon Reservation, but under no circumstances will a candidate receive approval to make a campaign or election-related statement or to respond to a campaign or election-related media query. When an elected official arrives or departs a military installation via military aircraft, the installation commander will not authorize media coverage of the arrival or departure if the elected official’s itinerary includes political campaign or election activity in the local community. The preceding prohibition does not apply to the President, the Vice President, or the Speaker of the House of Representatives. When the President, Vice President, or Speaker of the House arrives or departs a military installation via military aircraft and part of that official’s itinerary includes political campaign or election activity in support of a particular candidate, the installation commander will allow the media a photo opportunity to cover the arrival or departure of the President, Vice President, or Speaker of the House, but will not allow the supported candidate to be present during the photo opportunity.

DoD maintains a long-standing policy that DoD personnel acting in their official capacities may not engage in activities that associate DoD with any partisan political campaign or election, candidate, cause, or issue. Consistent with this policy guidance, installation commanders will decline requests for military personnel to appear in or support political campaign or election events. All military personnel, including national guard and reserve forces, are prohibited from wearing military uniforms at political campaign or election events [doesn’t include color guards-S].

All military personnel, including National Guard and Reserve forces, acting in their official capacities may not engage in public commentary, including speeches and written submissions offered for publication, concerning political campaigns or elections absent prior clearance.

FYI