My first time wearing my Scottish clothes and accessories.....

[CollinMacD]

CollinMacD.

Herein lies a problem. Let me say straight away that no one is denying you the right to wear your decorations, least of all me, that you earned during your service. But.........

The problem is the difficulty of marrying up Scottish kilt traditions and American traditions regarding decorations. The truth is, there is a difficulty here and it is as well that you are aware of it.

In the UK, including Scotland, civilians only wear their decorations on specific occasions and at functions where the wearing of decorations is specifically requested. To do otherwise is considered rather bad form over here. As I understand it, in the US decorations are worn fairly commonly at almost any occasion one chooses at the owner's whim.

I am not at all sure there is an easy answer to this, or even an answer, but personally I take the view that if you are wearing the Scottish clan tartan in the form of the kilt and appropriate attire, then Scottish traditions really ought to be followed. Others may of course differ, but it does clearly demonstrate that wearing the Scottish kilt outwith these shores does create a conflict of traditions.

Trust me I understand, as I lived in England (Croughton, near Upper Heyford), near Oxfordshire, (Banbary or Bicester area) for almost four years, but I saw a lot of British veterans both local and London wearing their large medals and smaller ones with civilian attire especially near Remembrance Day, November 11th with the poppies. I attended several functions at the American Embassy, and a couple at St. James Palace, with both British and other Nationalities, and several wore with civilian attire their military miniature dress medal with black tie.

I understand Scotland is different, but I see so many US Scots wearing their medal, to a point their is an actual US Coast Guard directive authorizing miniature medals to be work with FORMAL ATTIRE, include Kilts.... USCG only branch to have a fully registered and recognize Scottish Tartan, other have tartans but not recognized by that branch of service or registered in Scotland...

Trust me I understand and respect your post, but for this one this is very personal to me....Regards, Collin