© 2025 Western New York Public Broadcasting Association

140 Lower Terrace
Buffalo, NY 14202

Toronto Address:
130 Queens Quay E.
Suite 903
Toronto, ON M5A 0P6


Mailing Address:
Horizons Plaza P.O. Box 1263
Buffalo, NY 14240-1263

Buffalo Toronto Public Media | Phone 716-845-7000
BTPM NPR Newsroom | Phone: 716-845-7040
Give Now
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
red and white text reading OPPOSE RESCISSION PACKAGE CONTACT SENATE NOW 202-224-3121 against a blue background

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

By Mark Memmott
Published October 18, 2011 at 1:46 PM EDT
<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
/
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.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Tags
NPR Top Stories
Mark Memmott
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.