Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo Wednesday ordering senior Pentagon management to conduct a evaluate of navy requirements associated to well being and look throughout all providers.
The message requires the below secretary of protection for personnel and readiness to gather info pertaining to bodily health, physique composition and grooming, in order that the division can conduct an intensive overview of how and why these requirements have modified since Jan. 1, 2015.
“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,” Hegseth wrote. “Our adversaries should not rising weaker, and our duties should not rising much less difficult.”
The memo particularly highlights beards as an space of focus.
At present, navy personnel can solely develop facial hair with a waiver or exemption for a medical situation, spiritual lodging or different permitted cause.
Some providers have signaled that they could be extra receptive to loosening these guidelines.
The Air Pressure granted five-year medical waivers for beards in 2020, whereas beforehand it had solely given one-year waivers, and has weighed establishing a pilot program that might enable taking part airmen and guardians to develop out their facial hair.
For some service members, rising out a beard is a well being concern.
Sure troops expertise a medical situation known as pseudofolliculitis barbae, which ends up in undesirable bumps and painful ingrown hair from shaving usually. About 60% of Black males are affected by the situation, in keeping with the American Osteopathic School of Dermatology.
However there’s nonetheless stress surrounding the difficulty.
In Might 2024, an Military grasp sergeant with the twenty fifth Infantry Division alleged he misplaced out on a place due to his beard.
Hegseth’s concentrate on bodily health additionally comes a number of weeks after a federal watchdog criticized the Military for admitting trainees right into a health course whose physique fats composition exceeded the course’s requirements and will’ve barred them from coming into.
The report raised questions concerning the well being of recruits, in addition to the Military’s understanding of its personal requirements for bodily health.
The Military introduced in 2024 its intention to broaden its Holistic Well being and Health program, established in 2018, to the whole service by 2032. This system seeks to coach service members on the most effective methods to enhance the bodily, psychological, and sleep facets of their lives.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Navy Occasions, the place he covers breaking information, prison justice, investigations, and cyber. He beforehand labored as an investigative practicum pupil at The Washington Submit, the place he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
