Why can't we grow beards?

If you want to grow your beard so badly put in for an 18x mos

You are mistaken. All armies prior to world war 1 allowed facial hair. After poison gas was introduced to the battlefield the fancy beards disappeared. Facial hair can prevent the sealing of a promask. Even the religious exceptions to facial hair require that the soldier slather their face with vasciline to get a seal.

I will state that Nations in the Middle East or more correcting stated, "Southwest Asia; don't respect us as Men if we do not have facial hair. They don't consider us real men or anyone in their Nation as a Man, if they do not have facial hair.

I'm going off my personal experiences with talking to individuals etc...

In time of war the Army needs bodies and may relax the rules for criminal records, but just for combat arms since other MOSs hace more stringent security clearances.

I belive he is referring to the army drug policy, if you refer yourself befor failing a drug test then the army will rehab you. That to me is dangerous due to some mos dealing directly with weapons and live ammo consistently i.e. 11 bravo etc.., then as a former recruiter yes waivers are secured based on monthly numbers and needs of enlistment so at the end of the quarter if numbers are low a uasrec commander can authorize some sketchy waivers to get numbers right. As for beards they have been relaxed grooming standard profiles for socom and attached units for a long time, in country in order to gain respect and acceptance sf teams had beards to blend with indigenous people,as for garrison, the english,scottish,irish,italian,norwegian etc have had ability to grow beards and it has not affected the ability to train or fight. The U.S. Army is HUGE on tradition they notorious for using outdated practices and policies just because it is traditional, that being said to change that mode of thinking in the army is impossible today

Because it’s dumb.

Because your gas mask wont seal and all that good training will be wasted.

Food for thought: the Army seems to have allowed facial hare at some point. We often see high ranking officers and enlisted members of bygone generations sporting a mustache or a beard. I would be willing to bet that lice and other vectors/detractors were more unchecked back then.

It might be worth considering if it’s just a rule that’s out there.

IDK , because we still fear the chemical environment and the need to throw that mask on asap. Other wise I think its over rated .