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Navy Seals: Long hair, beard, jeans, etc.
- Thread starter JohnH1963
- Start date
One of the Seals I worked with while in the Navy told me they are amazed by a group of Air Force guys... Para-Jump-rescue.. PJ's. They secure Airfields and get injured pilots outta harms way behind enemy lines.. usually in very small numbers. For a SEAL to say someone is outta their mind ... they have to be hardcore
I always got a chuckle out of the nickname for PJ school: "Superman U."
Its for the same reason all front line British troops in Afghanistan are allowed to grow beards and long hair. It helps them gain a rapport with local tribes were men all have beards. It the mark of a man in that country. Only girls and boys don't have beards. The British military have been trying to get the US forces to allow their male soldiers to grow beards to no avail.
I don't think that is accurate, because SEAL and the various JSOC elements don't work with locals. They also work on "Zulu" time meaning, the come out late in the day/early into the night and go to sleep as early in the morning. So the only locals that see them are on the target sight.
The people who generally work directly with the locals, the ETTs and PMTs for most part don't grow beards or have long hear and they do just fine.
Also, having working with the Brits a few weeks ago in AFG, they didn't grow beards. Long hair is a relative thing most is longer than the US troops, but in general the Brits' was not long. The Dutch on the other hand had guys with Dreeds. The only ones I ever saw in the Brit mil who had beards were a few Sikhs.
I actually did hear the above - that facial hair helps build rapport with locals - to be true. Integration and interface are two different things. While SEALs might not work closely or integrate with indigenous peoples, their job could still require interfacing, formal or informal communication, with locals in a number of capacities. I understood beards signal a mature man worthy of respect in some middle-eastern cultures - thus, more likely to garner honest and substantial input from members of the community.
The blending element is also pertinent. So facial hair can serve multiple functions, as with non-standard or theater-specific (shemagh) articles of clothing.
Beards are also said to interfere with gas mask seal. I'm not sure if anyone can chime in as to how concerned operators are with gas attacks, but this is part of the reason given for shaving with "regular" servicemen.
I would not attribute beards to nastiness or poor maintenance of hygeine. Guys at hellhole FOBs still manage to keep with the grooming standards. Friend of mine has pictures of when he had to wear trousers caked in human poop for three days straight - like many, he got smelly, but he's not wearing any stubble. I'm not saying appearance standards are enforced everywhere or aggressively on deployment, but it's certainly not like they can't or won't shave.
The blending element is also pertinent. So facial hair can serve multiple functions, as with non-standard or theater-specific (shemagh) articles of clothing.
Beards are also said to interfere with gas mask seal. I'm not sure if anyone can chime in as to how concerned operators are with gas attacks, but this is part of the reason given for shaving with "regular" servicemen.
I would not attribute beards to nastiness or poor maintenance of hygeine. Guys at hellhole FOBs still manage to keep with the grooming standards. Friend of mine has pictures of when he had to wear trousers caked in human poop for three days straight - like many, he got smelly, but he's not wearing any stubble. I'm not saying appearance standards are enforced everywhere or aggressively on deployment, but it's certainly not like they can't or won't shave.
One of the Seals I worked with while in the Navy told me they are amazed by a group of Air Force guys... Para-Jump-rescue.. PJ's. They secure Airfields and get injured pilots outta harms way behind enemy lines.. usually in very small numbers. For a SEAL to say someone is outta their mind ... they have to be hardcore
PJ's are extreme combat medics/personnel recovery specialists, as stated their primary job is downed pilot rescue from wherever they happen to be. They do not secure airfields, that is combat controllers primary job - to secure/set up airfields and conduct air traffic control, getting planes moving in hostile environments. You'll see CCT and TACP's sporting beards and long hair in pics from the sand box, probably not PJ's, they're generally not out there mixing it up with the locals, they're mission is pretty specialized.