Why can't we grow beards?

Its the easiest way to prevent friendly fire incidents. Shoot everyone with a beard and you are all good. Most18 year olds want to grow beards but it really just looks like random pubic hair.

I think you should be able to, they make a great point and I’m tired of bleeding out of my face while in the field just so I can get an infection and irritation while “unprofessional” blood dots all over my face

Only Spec Ops on LURP duty should be allowed to grow beards. No time for personal grooming in the field!!

Because they said so. Follow orders and stop being a shit bag. Damn Blue Falcon

Strictly appearance. I was in the Navy and had a beard. I transferred to the USS Iowa and was ordered to shave because the ship was considered a high profile command. A year later, the entire US Navy was required to shave them off. A year later, I went to shore duty in Great Lakes, there were plenty of beards there. They were all on Brittish, German and Saudi sailors attending training. They looked more like seafarers and Viking fighting men than us!

As your friendly neighborhood Army Recruiter I can definitely tell you with 100 percent certainty that criminals, people with drug or alcohol abuse problems, overweight people and people who are unstable mentally are definitely not joining, that being said...what they do once they join is in their hands

With rules no matter how frivolous you might think they are,comes discipline which is a must.

Well I find it funny if there are grooming standards, then why arent they adhered to. I mean Ive seen people you have shaving profiles, still required to shave with an electric shaver, not even shave. Haircuts that aren't within regulation. So why would growing facial hair be anymore complex to make a stamdard. The thought about the mask not sealing properly, funny how firefighters wear masks to fight fires, and some departments allow them to grow facial hair. They have a standard. What about Police Departments that allow their officers to grow beards. They have to be prepared to wear a mask for riot control. Those are a few examples. So if they can make grooming standards for hair and shaving, they could also come up with one for those who want to grow beards.

Become a Sikh.

This has been a longstanding issue for debate. but I will provide my humble opinion on it. Being cleanly shaven from a personal hygiene standpoint is an easy argument, I can tell you that every time I was either in the field or in a deployed environment I would get that typical basic training cut and shave every day. Personally, I don't want anything to hinder the seal of my pro-mask and you know it will if you have a full face beard and hair on your neck. From a purely medical standpoint, having a beard especially in a field environment are proven to be significantly unsanitary. However; depending on a unit's mission, the mission commander could override the regulation (ie) Special Forces, Delta, Seals etc. Then the other argument is when was the last time we were attacked by a bona fide CBRNE agent??? but would you take that chance? IMHO