Uniform inspection hit for JAG

The show: JAG
The episode: "Measure of Men," first aired October 9, 2001, now available on Disc 1 of the Season 7 set.
What happened: A Marine dies during an amphibious landing exercise, and the Captain Huddleston (CO of the USS Guadalcanal, played by Sam Hennings) blames Major Lasley (Jim Fitzpatrick). Lt. Colonel MacKenzie and Gunny Galindez question the Marines. After talking it over with Galindez, Mac goes see the captain to recommend an Article 32 hearing. Huddleston instead decides to hold a special court martial aboard the ship and asks Mac to prosecute. Mac goes to inform Lasley, when Harm makes a surprising entrance.
The uniform inspection hit: Normally JAG can't be faulted for the military uniform costumes its actors wear. The show's military consultants make sure the uniforms are worn correctly. And when an uniform is worn incorrectly, there generally is an explanation in the plot (e.g., the careless Hollywood actor in the "Field of Gold" episode, Mac in the next episode, "Guilt," in which she gives a Marine emblem off her cover to a little girl). But in this episode, for no good reason, Mac goes see the captain without wearing her Lt. Colonel rank insignia on her uniform.
For most of this episode, the Marines wear their camouflage uniforms (the old ones, prior to the introduction of the "digital" uniforms). Back then, Marine officers were not authorized to use black cloth rank insignia on their camouflage uniforms, like the Army, but instead had to wear the kind of shiny insignia that would benefit an enemy sniper. So Marine officers would just take their insignia off in combat situations. Going to talk to a fellow officer would hardly qualify as a combat situation, trusting that the enlisted men would not confuse them for Privates. Look at the previous scene, the one Mac's talking to Galindez: she's wearing her rank insignia. Look at the next scene, the one she's talking to Lasley: she's also wearing her insignia. So she took off the silver oak leaf to talk to the captain, then put it back on to talk to Lasley?
Of course these scenes were most likely not shot in chronological order. But I'm not quite sure the unusual setup of the scene in question here is enough to justify the military consultants failing to see the lack of silver on Catherine Bell's collar.