Do Real Marines Have Nipple Rings?

Now for the latest in Marine Corps after-battle gear: Nipple rings.

Nobody knows for sure how many Marines are wearing such rings. But enough to interest the Camp Pendleton newspaper to muse: “Nipple Rings: Are They Legal, Cool or Just Plain Eccentric?”

Just shows how quickly these anti-authoritarian things can escalate. Not two years ago the controversy was over earrings.

The commandant then ruled that male Marines will not wear earrings, on or off duty. But a trip to any shopping mall in Carlsbad or Oceanside will show you that scofflaws persist.

Nipple rings are different. More painful (piercing can be rough). Less visible, unless you’re at the beach or otherwise shirtless.

There are no regulations that might cover nipple rings, except one that says Marines should not display “eccentricities of dress.”

Are nipple rings eccentric? Or do they harken back to old seafaring days of iron men and wooden ships?

A nipple-ring-wearing Marine, quoted anonymously in the Pendleton paper, says it’s a tradition from the old merchant marine.

“They used to get an earring when they crossed the Equator for the first time,” he said. “Since we can’t wear earrings, we have to get something else.”

Billy Budd is said to have worn a single gold ring in his ear. If he wore a nipple ring, too, Melville was too discreet to say.

The Navy, the Marine Corps’ parent service, also has no nipple ring regulations.

It does have restrictions--Billy Budd be damned--banning earrings and pierced ears. And limiting to one the number of necklaces a sailor can wear beneath his uniform and then only if the necklace does not pose a “safety or foreign object damage hazard.”

As for nipple rings, a Navy spokesman says:

“That sounds like a problem that should stay in the U.S. Marine Corps.”

A Strange Silence

Thanks and no thanks.

Werner Friemelt was bicycling at Miramar Lake when he spotted a man floating face down 20 feet or so from shore.

Friemelt, who lives in Mira Mesa, is neither young (62), a physical specimen (5-foot-5, 132 pounds), nor in the best of health (a heart attack two years ago).

But without hesitation he ran to the water and dived in. The fully dressed floater was heavily water-logged but, luckily, he was also unconscious.

“He didn’t grab or thrash,” Friemelt said. “That probably saved his life and mine, too.”

Friemelt pushed and pulled and finally, with some help, got the man to shore.

Bernice Maller, who had been jogging, administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The near-drowning victim, a 45-year-old man from National City, was taken to a hospital by paramedics and released. He apparently had been sitting on the bank and fell into the water and maybe hit his head.

It’s now six weeks later, and Friemelt and Maller have yet to hear from the man they rescued from becoming fish bait.

The Police Department, however, is not so short on gratitude for quick thinking that saved a life.

On Tuesday, Friemelt and Maller received commendations from Chief Bob Burgreen.

A Sign of Stupidity

Here and there.

* Mean streets.

A gang member in Southeast San Diego saw a young deaf person using sign language to communicate with his girlfriend.

The gangster thought he was flashing “gang signs”--elaborate finger challenges--and allegedly pulled a knife.

The deaf youth was forced to defend himself with a hunk of wood. The teen-age gang member is now on trial for brandishing a lethal weapon.

* Even after Susan Bray filed for disability, her boss, Robert Spaulding, went to her home more than once, apparently uninvited.

That’s one reason city officials decided her sexual harassment claim had enough merit to warrant a settlement.