Quote Originally Posted by davedove View Post
It should be said that if you are going to wear a mess jacket, and it is not part of a uniform, then you should remove the distinctive uniform items from it first. These include thing like removing insignia, changing the buttons, etc.

Of course, this is for US uniforms. I don't know what the rules are for other countries.
Absolutely! Do not parade around wearing military insignia that you have no connection to!

My suggestion was to watch for "unused" mess jackets, which appear fairly often, like this seller, which has had unused jackets for sale on ebay for $99 for a long time.

http://cgi.ebay.com/U-S-NAVY-OFFICER...QQcmdZViewItem