Army medical officers should present a written suggestion for a waiver to the clean-shaven normal for these looking for an exemption.
The Pentagon on Sept. 15 unveiled grooming requirements for facial hair, ordering navy personnel to be clean-shaven and requiring that these granted a medical exemption be on a remedy plan.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell mentioned in an announcement that Secretary of Battle Pete Hegseth “lately directed the Providers to implement … grooming requirements for facial hair” following the fast force-wide overview of navy requirements.
The assertion linked to an Aug. 20 memorandum, made public on Sept. 15, by which Hegseth mentioned personnel ought to be “clear shaven and neat in presentation for a correct navy look.”
The memorandum states that navy medical officers should subject a written suggestion for a waiver to the clean-shaven rule, whereas closing approval rests with the service member’s commander.
These with an authorised waiver should be placed on a medical remedy plan.
Hegseth wrote: “Unit commanders will provoke separation of Service members who require a shaving waiver after greater than 1 12 months of medical remedy. I’ve full confidence in our leaders in any respect ranges to offer an correct evaluation of whether or not retention is suitable.”
He mentioned that the energy of the navy is its shared goal and unity, and that the Division of Battle “should stay vigilant in sustaining the grooming requirements which underpin the warrior ethos.”
The directive was put into motion efficient instantly.
The U.S. Military final week introduced updates to requirements for grooming and uniform put on, together with “exact” definitions for hairstyles, with requirements on jewellery, cosmetics, and fingernails additionally being clarified.
The updates replicate “self-discipline, professionalism, and a shared dedication to the Military’s values,” the service mentioned.
In January, the Air Drive additionally launched new insurance policies on grooming and uniform put on. This included restrictions on girls’s nail polish to solely three choices—clear, or American or French manicure—in addition to directives on facial hair for male Airmen.
The Air Drive mentioned within the Jan. 29 memorandum, “Pleasure in an Airman’s private look and uniform put on tremendously enhances the self-discipline important to an efficient navy power.”
It added that Airmen should keep a excessive normal of private look and costume to convey self-discipline and dedication to the Air Drive, which, in flip, instills confidence within the American public and elected representatives.
Army Requirements Speedy Assessment
In March, Hegseth ordered the Speedy Drive-Vast Assessment of Army Requirements, which included a overview of bodily health, physique composition, and grooming requirements.
Hegseth mentioned within the March 12 memorandum that the overview would reveal how the then-Division of Protection had maintained its requirements and what modifications can be wanted going ahead.
“We should stay vigilant in sustaining the requirements that allow the women and men of our navy to guard the American individuals and our homeland because the world’s most deadly and efficient combating power,” he mentioned.
In April, Washington-based suppose tank American Safety Mission (ASP) launched a report that discovered that almost 68 p.c of U.S. navy reserve personnel had been chubby.
“The variety of younger adults serious about navy service stays enough to take care of present power energy. Nevertheless, as chubby and weight problems disqualify hundreds of candidates every year, companies are incentivized to violate physique composition enlistment requirements to satisfy recruitment objectives,” the ASP report mentioned.
Hegseth known as the findings “utterly unacceptable.”
He wrote on X on April 25: “That is what occurs when requirements are ignored—and that is what we’re altering. Actual health & weight requirements are right here.
“We will likely be FIT, not FAT.”
Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.
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