I'm replying to the letter where name withheld was lamenting lack of active duty visitors. I too am a Marine Veteran and VA employee, and I'm here to say Esprit de Corps is alive and well. Most of the VA facilities are pretty far from any active duty bases. MCL members and former Marine employees have got to pick up the slack.
My facility issues a card that shows branch of service that you wear behind your PIV card. Ours stand out better than the other branches (as well it should!) I always like the startled look, then the following conversation when I bark at someone wearing a USMC cover, "Where did you learn to wear a cover inside, Marine?!?"
Remember;
"A Marine is a Marine. I set that policy two weeks ago – there's no such thing as a former Marine. You're a Marine, just in a different uniform and you're in a different phase of your life. But you'll always be a Marine because you went to Parris Island, San Diego or the hills of Quantico. There's no such thing as a former Marine."
CMC, General James F. Amos
Keith Grisham, Currently serving in the 1st Civ Div.