That would be very against military tradition, so I doubt it.
Sailors have been known to wear earrings. I mean male sailors.
But thank you for your informative comments.
As I said, I doubt that's what the ear rings are.
First, they do call her by her rank in the video.
Second, it's common in military culture for a retiree to be listed as [their rank] (RET) to indicate their Retired status.
Third, the video is from 1986. Policies and culture can and typically do change over the course of several decades.
If you served only a few years and did not reenlist, no, it's not appropriate to call yourself by your former rank. But retirees are free to use their rank so long as they don't misrepresent themselves as if they are still active duty, generally speaking.
I was in the Marines, both have the rank of Corporal. I asked a friend and he pointed me here: https://www.defense.gov/Contact/Help-Center/Article/Article/...
You are right about the use of rank by retirees.
The example I gave is wrong or rather, more pertinent to active duty when operating in a civilian capacity. The Navy and Marines are the only branches that have specific rules about that. Wearing your insignia as an earring is what I was addressing and that is still very taboo. I served under Mattis and I'd be floored if I saw him wearing four star bars in a suit.
Remember this woman was an Admiral(?) and a groundbreaker. Maybe she made the tradition. Not a lot of Navy folk (publicly) wearing dresses before either.
That was my point, badly made. There were likely no traditions regarding menopause or menstruation before women joined for instance. There was a need to 'make tradition'.
Whether that applies to decorative dangly earrings worn during interviews, I suspect there was some part of tradition that was lacking clarity.