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Policy Reversed: Marines May Wear 'KIA Bracelets' Honoring The Fallen

<p>Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew Nolen, a corpsman with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, wears a memorial bracelet or KIA (killed in action) bracelet in honor of his fallen squad leader Cpl. Michael W. Ouellette, who was killed during a patrol in Afghanistan. </p>
Sgt. Michael S. Cifuentes
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marines.mil

Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew Nolen, a corpsman with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, wears a memorial bracelet or KIA (killed in action) bracelet in honor of his fallen squad leader Cpl. Michael W. Ouellette, who was killed during a patrol in Afghanistan.

"The Marine Corps is ending its controversial ban on bracelets honoring U.S. troops killed in combat," Marine Corps Times is reporting.

The newspaper (a Gannett Co. publication) got considerable attention when it reported earlier that "commands across the Marine Corps are clamping down on troops who wear bracelets that commemorate friends killed in action. And Marines are fuming about it." The bracelets were seen by commanders as being against uniform regulations.

Now, it writes:

"An announcement from Commandant Gen. Jim Amos will be made Tuesday afternoon authorizing Marines in uniform to wear the so-called KIA bracelets, according to a Marine official at the Pentagon with knowledge of the decision. The policy is effective immediately, the official said."

A visit last week with members of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines apparently helped convince Amos that the policy needed to be changed.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.