The Origin of Hegseth's Anti-Beard Obsession

"On Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's trip to Asia last month, Air Force leadership issued an unusual directive: Keep him from seeing a service member with a beard. The instruction was surreal, the kind of stage management usually reserved for celebrities with eccentric phobias. Yet for Hegseth, facial hair has become a symbol of everything he believes has gone wrong in the U.S. military-a distraction from its "warrior ethos," and, somehow, a threat to military readiness."

"In late September, he lectured on the subject of beards at an unprecedented global convening of the military's most senior leaders, where-framed by the American flag-he proclaimed, "No more beardos. The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done." I served as assistant secretary of the Air Force during the Biden administration, as well as the Army secretary's chief of staff during the Obama administration."

"In late 2015, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter ordered the military to open all combat jobs to women, a policy that required the development of detailed implementation plans to integrate women into ground-combat career fields including infantry, armor, and special operations. In June 2016, Carter directed the services to develop procedures to support the inclusion of transgender personnel. Yet within the Army, the question of whether service members whose faith requires facial hair-such as Sikhs, Jews, and Muslims-were entitled to permanent religious accommodations provoked the loudest objections from the brass."

Air Force leaders instructed personnel to prevent Secretary Hegseth from meeting a bearded service member during his Asia trip. Hegseth frames facial hair as undermining military "warrior ethos" and a readiness concern, and publicly condemned widespread shaving exemptions. The issue of shaving profiles and grooming exceptions became a highly emotional personnel matter for senior Pentagon officials. Recent personnel changes included opening combat jobs to women in 2015 and directing procedures for transgender inclusion in 2016. Within the Army, requests for permanent religious accommodations for facial hair by Sikhs, Jews, and Muslims triggered intense objections from senior leaders.

Read at The Atlantic