It's been awhile since I've seen one of these stories, this one from Western Wisconsin. My opinion on this one is everybody's wrong. First, the school; no you won't have to make an exception for everybody in the future. You can say that a student who graduated early and joined the military will get the honor of wearing his dress blues at graduation. But it is the school's decision.

I think the graduate is wrong by saying he'll not attend if he can't wear his dress blues. I think the Military's perspective on this is the right one:

Marine Capt. Ken Kunze, public affairs officer for the Ninth Marine Corps District, said that it's not uncommon for Marines to wear dress blues for community events such as high school graduation ceremonies, but he advised that school policies should be followed.

"If it's the school policy that they all wear caps and gowns, then obviously we're not going to tell the school that there's a problem with their policy," Kunze said. "We encourage Marines to follow the rules of the organization that they're working with, especially when it comes to community relations events. If there are rules and guidelines that community events have as far as uniformity and things of that nature, then we encourage Marines to abide by those rules."

He's free to disagree with the decision, as I do. I think skipping the ceremony because of that disagreement doesn't reflect well on the graduate or the Marines.