I work at a regional office for an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor. In official correspondence to the state labor departments, our salutations are “Dear Commissioner [Name],” “Dear Director [Name],” or “Dear Secretary [Name]” according to the title of the position, but I am uncertain how to address correspondence to a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general whose appointment as the labor commissioner in Maine was recently confirmed. My first instinct was to omit any reference to his military rank as it has no bearing on his current position, but news articles regarding his appointment refer to him throughout as “Lt. General [sic] Sinclair” even though he was subsequently elected to the Maine House of Representatives and employed at IBM.
— Candy de Lovely
Dear Ms. de Lovely:
The Department of Defense would write to him officially, e.g., with regard to is retirement benefits as:
LTG Robert J. Wineglass, USMC, Retired
And he would use that form on in social situations, e.g., on his daughter’s wedding invitation.
DoD’s perspective on using his rank+retired in a subsequent job would be … to paraphrase the current Chief of Protocol for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon: If retirees are in a new job, then they should be addressed in a way that supports their new job and not using military rank+retired – it is a misrepresentation. They are in a new job – not the military. When retired officers attend Pentagon events as the holder of a post-retirement job — and are not invited as a retired officer — they are not addressed by rank+retired on invitations or tent cards etc., but as Mr/Ms (name) and their new company affiliation.
Address him in regard to matters under the purview of his current position in the manner he holds that office — as a private citizen:
Mr. Robert J. Sinclair
Whereas if you are addressing him as a former member of the the Maine House of Representatives, use:
– Robert Hickey www.formsofaddress.info
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