This has not been uncommon in the US. A smaller military may have made it less common, guess.<p>Nor is it particularly new. In Henry IV, Part 1, Shakespeare has Falstaff say of his troops "Nay, and the Villaines march wide betwixt the Legges, as if they had Gyues on; for indeede, I had the most of them out of Prison." Fiction, yes, but obviously plausible to the audience.