The Air Force Times reports on Air Force SSgt Garrett Sopchak, who just became the first US Air Force Airman to be allowed to wear a beard because he adheres to Norse Heathen religious beliefs. This is the first time the command has done so. Community for current and past members of the US Air Force. Sikhs have served honorably and capably in the U.S. Armed Forces and other militaries around the world, and while we are eager for a blanket proclamation that all observant Sikh Americans can serve in every branch of the military without seeking accommodations, this policy clarification is a great step forward towards ensuring equality of opportunity and religious freedom in the Air Force.. are divided over that study showing beard waivers hurt careers. The research studied the effect of shaving waivers on the careers of active duty male airmen. Under certain conditions, commanding officers can order the removal of turbans or hijabs to keep service members safe, the regulations state for example, while someone is walking within 25 feet of an operating aircraft. Religious exemptions to the rule allow for beards up to 2 inches long. The majority of the waiver group was Black (64.18%), despite that group making up only 12.85% of the cohort. Abdul Rahman Gaitan became the first Muslim airman to receive a beard waiver for religious reasons. And in February, the Air Force officially updated its regulations to formally allow airmen to request religious beard waivers. For example, hijabs must be closely fitted to the contours of the airman's head and neck, tucked under the uniform top, and cannot cover the airman's eyebrows, eyes, cheeks, nose, mouth or chin. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Sopchak said that something about the Heathen religion felt more real to him. Published Feb 12, 2020 2:11 PM EST. Heres how. In March 2021, after Comer arrived at Maxwell Air Force Base, he started talking to his first sergeant about applying for a religious accommodation to obtain a beard waiver. &w\=xi~Wh^iz`b=)!]T;iMC.OXm(+N*uHe{5"@"o$n*uQI'JHyLij%O&Q3 .\nOemNKW2j2ttYK9sll?hyA/fQ/lF\ pVyH0qd~T#o[Bpi*In=mS hU f[6rx~ 8;GO yNb4.A`t`Wj That matches the length allowed for people who are medically exempt from the requirement to be clean-shaven. ), the Washington Post, and others. of the Air Force JoAnne Bass, wants to reduce the branchs cultural bias against shaving waivers granted for medical or religious reasons. Theres a lot of things that we learn from the past and our ancestry, and its just carrying on the line, really.. Would beards be nice? He joined Task & Purpose in 2019, after covering local news in Maine and FDA policy in Washington D.C. David loves hearing the stories of individual airmen and their families and sharing the human side of Americas most tech-heavy military branch. The Quran, too, was used in a similar manner. Abdul Rahman Gaitan in 2018 became the first Muslim airman to receive a beard waiver for religious reasons. The same neat and conservative approach applies to beards, which must not exceed two inches when measured from the bottom of the chin, the regulations states. That assessment, and ability to address and adjust, is critical to our force, and our people. Turbans and under-turbans have similar color and material requirements as the hijab. The Air Force has granted several airmen permission to wear beards, turbans and the hijab for religious reasons in recent years. A federal judge Thursday temporarily blocked the Air Force from penalizing a group of service members who are seeking a religious exemption to otherwise mandatory Covid-19 vaccination, in. Gen. Charles A. McGee Leadership Award, named after the legendary Tuskegee Airman, will give either $18,000 per year, The Space Forces new leader has definedthree lines of effort he wants the young service to pursue, focusing on combat-ready forces, personnel management, and partnerships with other Pentagon organizations and allies. W2~@R>tA);|6[ +XnDnQi\k`LF. The Air Force, citing privacy concerns, declined to identify how many airmen have obtained waivers based on religious exemptions but said the publicity surrounding approvals in recent years has . Airman 1st Class Harpreetinder Singh Bajwa in June 2019 became the first active-duty Sikh airman allowed to wear a turban, beard and long hair, which Sikhs tie in a bun and then cover with the turban. Because its a faith that hasnt been practiced in about 1,000 years, he said, theres no set way to practice it. The Air Force currently prohibits service members from growing beards unless they are granted a religious or medical waiver, a policy that has come under scrutiny lately after military. endobj Get the latest in military news, entertainment and gear in your inbox daily. Yes, Navy Seals can grow beards. Religious head coverings are also required to be free of designs or markings unless the individuals uniform has a camouflage pattern. You will have a meeting with the Chaplain where they ask you questions to determine if you have a sincerely held belief that you shouldn't shave. Rather than delay his enlistment, Comer decided to shave his beard and apply for the accommodation at a later date. The Nevada Army Guard said that Sgt. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Personnel Division," to all sign off . HbMc#!6d~\@sQfe_Mp X_T1ew,`CC _O3b eTBo~&aM(AL?z[vEIYf~;LI>*H~BL 3v3!2/)mC*f3d]UL!'7*^LtPNl2"8}Vo=N@&.&|Ye. We speculate that these members, irrespective of race/ethnicity, may perceive this bias against shaving waivers and choose to leave the service earlier.. Action on Requests for Religious Accommodation that Require the Waiver of Department of the Air Force Regulations or Policies or Directives . of the Air Force Kaleth Wright, said in April on a panel discussion on male grooming standards in the Air Force. This new study shows that changing beard regulations may actually be a need, rather than a want, because the current policy essentially discriminates against Black airmen. Big news today for the many airmen out there who want to grow out their beards: not only is there little evidence showing that beards interfere with a gas mask seal, but the Air Forces ban on beards may also be contributing to racial discrimination and hurting promotion opportunities within the service. (Staff Sgt. If the idea moves forward, participating airmen and guardians would become the subject of a research project whose data could convince high-level Pentagon officials to allow more flexibility on facial hair. . Published Dec 21, 2022 5:12 PM EST. 1st Class Benjamin . It gradually worked its way up through the bureaucracy before ultimately being approved July 8 by Air Force personnel chief Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly. Maysaa Ouza, the first Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps officer to wear the hijab, was also featured in a short NBC documentary last year. Don't lie about your belief. <> Many Asatruars and other heathens think it's wrong for heathens to use this exemption because heathens don't have the kind of religion in which our gods require all their followers to follow commandments in order to achieve a proper afterlife. Beards can also be seen as symbols of power, strength, and virility. Wright said he was opposed to facial hair in the Air Force for 29 of his 32 years in service. Does anyone have any information on how you actually get a religious exemption for shaving? The 2021 study found that airmen with shaving waivers faced significantly longer wait times for promotions and were often barred from sought-after jobs such as Honor Guard, recruiting, military training instructors, or the Thunderbirds demonstration team. For a long time, the old Norse mythology of Odin, Thor and Ragnark was just that for Staff Sgt. Soldiers assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade use hot towels to warm their faces during a shaving clinic May 22 at the brigade's organizational classroom. But on July 18, the amn/nco/snco page posted a March 1 memo granting another Heathen airman, Staff Sgt. The Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group which works on behalf of Sikhs and other religious minorities in the military, praised the new regulation. Beard News in Air Force Copyright 2022 Beard Waiver - All Rights Reserved. In addition to promoting one's own well-being and four pillars, respecting others whose viewpoints differ from them is expected from the total force. Ou5g(O5b5md8_ -+'.$Dvqx)YDTwXD`m_~G ArVT+`oo According to an Air Force press . Brown Jr. covered a broad range of topics with his additions to his Leadership Library in February. The Supreme Court today upheld Indian Air Force's denial of permission to two Muslim personnel to grow beard, holding that the two orders were in compliance with Regulation 425(b) which . There are many religious reasons why people might choose to grow a beard. | thx. While the Air Force prohibits male members from growing beards, waivers are issued to airmen who, for medical and religious reasons, are not able to shave in line with regulations. Last year, Capt. The U.S. Air Force issued new guidelines on Friday giving members who wear religious apparel a way to serve the country without compromising their faith. The research studied the effect of shaving waivers on the careers of active duty male airmen. Eugene Oliver/U.S. The new AFI formally allows requests for waivers, and for neat and conservative beards that present a professional appearance. 3.1.2.3.1. While the Air Force prohibits male members from growing beards, waivers are issued to airmen who,. David Roza 4 0 obj Its an unsubstantiated claim, dermatologist Lt. Col. Simon Ritchie told Task & Purpose in May. The updated regulations mandate that faith-based religious apparel requests can only be denied for a compelling government interest and the denial must be the least restrictive way the Air Force has of achieving that government interest. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md. There are plenty of smaller regulations detailing how religious beards and apparel should look in order to appear neat and conservative, the Air Force writes. It also specifically looked at the time it took airmen with shaving waivers to get promoted relative to airmen without waivers, and whether that association led to racial bias. The waiver group also had a greater rate of disciplinary action compared to the no-waiver group (18.96% versus 11.45%). And if that airman is assigned to a unit that wears a beret of a particular color, the unit commander can order him to wear a turban of the same color. <>>> purifying respirators and controlled air purifying respirators or beard-bands: 3. work just as well as N95s, but may cost more, and thus may be found to impose . Accommodations, after all, arent about special treatment they are about ensuring that religiously observant Sikhs and others dont have to choose between staying true to our faith and serving our country, he said. Staff Sgt. The U.S. Air Force issued new guidelines on Friday giving members who wear religious apparel a way to serve the country without compromising their faith. The Air Force Times reports that applications for waivers can now be made by airmen who wish to wear religious apparel or are requesting exemptions from rules prohibiting beards and long hair. In the event of a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive threat, commanding officers could also ask someone wearing a hijab to remove it to ensure a proper gas mask fit. The conventional view of facial hair is that it looks unprofessional in uniform. In a June 18 memo, Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Dorothy Hogg authorized the longer shaving waivers for airmen with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or razor bumps, effective immediately. There could be more studies of this topic to come. I cant tell you how many hundreds of times, probably thousands, that weve gotten [that] question. Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost? The Air Force in recent years has begun granting waivers to allow airmen including airmen of the Muslim, Sikh and Norse Heathen or pagan faiths to grow beards for religious reasons. >_fn7dw)>S#a\7]zdWwgsZMA2!2/af>]]I+ .$sMOr])0`F\>-vxX|K h%&ZG2xI%#}pxg@;%rE*q"TY(kfIeWgh&*$|- F'$_L2;&"bw.%i^XxzS\'Z+gQI,=b6)J|Se{Sl)xog`7^}T# N7 x+|B7 A religious accommodation request must include information including the airmans job, what the airman is asking for and the religious reason for the request, and a comment on the sincerity of the request. The Air Force is committed to continuing to remove barriers that prevent airmen from applying for, and being accepted into, career broadening opportunities, Bass said in a statement sent to Task & Purpose. David Roza Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced the Space National Guard Establishment Act on, From Abraham Lincoln to the Tuskegee Airmen to lessons from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. The updated Air Force Instruction, released Feb. 7, also formally allows Sikh airmen to wear turbans and Muslim women to wear hijabs. The comment, which was also shared on the popular Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco, was made in response to a selfie she posted of herself alongside Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Airman 1st Class Kyle Voss-McReynolds, who was the leadership teams driver during a recent event and who also wears a beard in uniform. With regards to promotions, the wait grows longer the more time airmen have shaving waivers. Any recommendations made by the board would then have to be approved by Air Force senior leadership, a service spokesperson told Coffee or Die at the time. t7be,2/gQ u7|O;(?lKHfm'*g' I{C Theyre more like family members than they are divine beings, Sopchak said. Sorry airmen, you're not getting beards without a medical or religious waiver anytime soon, as Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles 'CQ' Brown and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force . So far, the Air Force has banned beards for all except those who have five-year medical waivers for pseudofolliculitis barbae, or chronic razor bumps, or religious waivers for those for whom. We dont have to hire RAND or Booz Allen Hamilton to do it, but the Air Force needs to want it to happen, he said at the time. safety) or when precluded by a compelling (i.e., especially important) governmental and/or Air Force interest. stream Tim Chacon/Air National Guard. The authors called for wider research in the area in order to refute or substantiate their findings. Also in 2019, Airman 1st Class Harpreetinder Singh Bajwa became the first Sikh airman to receive an accommodation for a turban, beard and unshorn hair, and two Norse Heathen airmen were also allowed to grow beards. For some pagans, it is seen as a way of honoring the gods and goddesses. We are working to take away the stigma attached to airmen who have a medical need or a religious accommodation for facial hair, Bass wrote in a comment on her Facebook page on Tuesday. Dress and Personal Appearance of Air Force Personnel, Airman 1st Class Harpreetinder Singh Bajwa. HuffPost's top politics stories, straight to your inbox. <> The Army granted a similar waiver last year, and beard exemptions have been granted for a growing number of Sikhs and Muslims though not atheists. This causes inflammation and a foreign body reaction, and over time, can result in scarring. Chapter IV - Four Eyes Were Reading the Passage I was running the head of my pencil-case along the line as I read it, and something caused me to raise my eyes. Editors note: This story has been updated with new comments from Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass. The Air Force on Friday became the second branch of the U.S. military to approve the wearing of beards, turbans, hijabs, under-turbans/patkas, unshorn hair and other indoor/outdoor head coverings for religious reasons. But so far, the call for beards seems to fall on deaf ears. The services often claim that facial hair interferes with the seal of a gas mask, but an Air Force doctor has found no direct scientific evidence to support that claim. The religious accommodation process isn't designed for individuals to play the God/conscience card to get around things they don't like. He joined Task & Purpose in 2019, after covering local news in Maine and FDA policy in Washington D.C. David loves hearing the stories of individual airmen and their families and sharing the human side of Americas most tech-heavy military branch. The Air Force has cited razor bumps in the past when making changes to its grooming policy. % I had opportunities to hire all kinds of folks and I was adamant about not hiring somebody with a shaving waiver, just because I fell into that category of this is Air Force policy, its not professional, he said. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations. Previously, these airmen needed to get their waivers updated annually. dx xE28;eN0ORG*sMhw_2iL!o@/dUKS0sD~-dd!7r.7ucOjP0GH#_&F%)wr-' (Garrett Sopchak) For nearly a year, the Air Force weighed a staff sergeant's request to grow a beard as part of his religious beliefs before. ;NNB6 j~X3E]4]euu((m#/S>c9K71,E304a;97la@Ejrf-o eP9_$)'"?#EO!orCi=5P@C5TmJY;^qzU/nWXvvRH~]/C >K)a2MuOzZ.VsDNOr%rZR[TINcCPBi!U;$TXA9%9;?&>k37{X]sa`p3Wc1^CKtjBrx\5uI3 The Air Force style authorities have spoken: neck and hand tattoos are in, beards are still out. David covers the Air Force, Space Force and anything Star Wars-related. The DAF will remove adverse information from records of those currently serving service members who sought. So far, the Air Force has banned beards for all except those who have five-year medical waivers for pseudofolliculitis barbae, or chronic razor bumps, or religious waivers for those for whom beards are central to their observance, like Sikhs, Jews, Muslims and Norse Heathens. A member of the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) has received the first-ever religious-related waiver, allowing him to wear a turban and keep a beard. And at least two airmen who follow the Norse Heathen, or pagan, faiths have been granted permission to wear a beard. The military branch . Airmens facial hair also cannot interfere with the wear of personal protective equipment such as gas masks, the Air Force said, and airmen must be able to continue to perform their duties. Later, every religious trend sought and found the hadiths that justified its principles. But advocates argue that more sweeping changes are needed, in part because shaving waivers are often misunderstood and hurt Airmen's careers. Beards should have been approved years ago, Facebook commenter Heather Britten wrote. The same was true for airmen trying to hit the rank of staff sergeant (E-5). Get the latest in military news, entertainment and gear in your inbox daily. Airmen in need of a waiver could try laser hair removal or chemical treatment, but many airmen are reluctant to undertake them because it could permanently alter their ability to grow facial hair, the study authors wrote. Also, do you have to be able to prove that you are that religion or can you just claim that you are a Muslim and thats that.