PENTAGON – Recent revisions to the Navy’s dress code have garnered a lot of attention with high profile changes, such as allowing men to wear earrings when off duty, and allowing women to have “very short length hairstyles that show the scalp.” But one update in particular is being hailed by both old school and junior Navy officers: regulations that formalize the wear of live parrots on the shoulders of field grade officers in command billets.
“Wearing a parrot has long been an honored tradition for sailors,” said David Cummings, a civilian historian who works for the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington D.C. “Yet for some reason senior US Navy leadership has been reluctant since the nation’s founding to formalize the practice. Well argh, now they’ve fixed a grave oversight!”
Malcom Taylor, a retired admiral and author of the book “YAR! To the Plank With Ye,” A Guide to Modern Naval Leadership, agreed.
