air force religious beard waiver

This is an update to AFI 36-2903, "Dress and personal appearance of Air Force Personnel," and it will allow the headdress to be worn provided it is "neat and conservative" and that the airmen present a professional . Copyright 2023. Airman becomes the first Muslim to be granted service's beard waiver for observing religion By Jon Simkins Nov 20, 2018 Air Force Staff Sgt. 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 Air Force has cited razor bumps in the past when making changes to its grooming policy. Seven months later, this reporter could not immediately find any such progress reports. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations. 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. safety) or when precluded by a compelling (i.e., especially important) governmental and/or Air Force interest. Community for current and past members of the US Air Force. | ~pkgEsHh,1%l|hJ are divided over that study showing beard waivers hurt careers. Garrett Sopchak, a 28-year-old aerospace . Hopper,. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. A1C Rathour is the first Sikh Airman to receive religious accommodation, and may grow his beard and wear his turban while in uniform. Some of it was because I just ignored it, some of it was because I wanted these young men to do what I did: just suck it up and figure it out and youll be fine.. A highly visible sign of changing Air Force policy may soon be evident here at Kingsley Field, in Klamath Falls, Oregon. DAF COVID-19 Statistics - January 2022. By This is the first time the command has done so. Though. Staff Sgt. It gradually worked its way up through the bureaucracy before ultimately being approved July 8 by Air Force personnel chief Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly. Of them, 40 Airmen voluntarily left the service and 14 officers retired, according to Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones at a House Armed Services Committee hearing Feb. 28. Theres a lot of comparables where Hey if females and women in the military just got their hair changed, how about beards? said Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass in April. . I know Islam is iffy on if Beard are actually required but it is apart of the religion that I want to practice. 1 0 obj 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. 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. Religious head coverings are also required to be free of designs or markings unless the individuals uniform has a camouflage pattern. Wright, who is Black, said he resolved his own shaving irritation by learning how to shave in a way that would not irritate his skin, so he assumed other airmen would be able to resolve their irritation the same way. Sopchak said in a Tuesday interview that in the old sagas, a beard was a sign someone was a respected member of the community who could be trusted to help others. According to the Nevada Army Guard's and Air Guard's personnel offices, the state has eight Guardsmen - four Soldiers and four Airmen - who declare Pagan as their religious preference. Contact the author here. 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 . I want to go all out with practing the religion (including reading the Quran like it is recommened during Ramadan. 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. Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. Get the latest military news, entertainment, and gear in your inbox daily. It is unclear how many Norse pagans, Heathen, or Asatru followers are in the military, but they have become increasingly visible in recent years. 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. other similar condition s that prohibits regular facial shaving may requ est a waiver to wear a beard . "Sikhs are allowed to wear beards and turbans because it actually is a religious requirement of their faith that they do so. In 2018, the Air Force granted its first "religious accommodation beard waiver" to a Muslim airman, allowing him to wear a beard while in uniform. U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Isaac John, 423d Security Forces Squadron flight member, holds his position during a field training exercise at Stanford Training Area, England, Aug. 17, 2022. The U.S. Air Force granted its first religious waivers to the military-wide COVID-19 vaccine mandate this week. Theres a lot of things that we learn from the past and our ancestry, and its just carrying on the line, really.. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. Get the latest in military news, entertainment and gear in your inbox daily. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. We recommend further study of gas mask and respirator fit testing with facial hair in the military population to clarify this.. Others mused that more people would enlist if beards were allowed. Theyre more like family members than they are divine beings, Sopchak said. As of Jan. 21, the Air Force has administratively separated 111 active duty Airmen. While supporters of current Air Force policy may have anecdotal evidence of one to five people who they see fail the fit test, he said, that cant be extrapolated to hundreds of thousands of airmen.. However, given the most recent research; shaving waivers could play a role in racial disparity in terms of promotions. Sopchak said hes recently had some airmen, who were interested in exploring his religion, email him with questions, and hes helping other Air Force Heathens get their beards approved. Maysaa Ouza became the first Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps officer to wear hijab. 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. The study authors found that the long wait for promotions applied to airmen of all races who had waivers. The research studied the effect of shaving waivers on the careers of active duty male airmen. 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. On Monday, Captain Toor and three other Sikhs sued the Marine Corps in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, saying the corps's refusal to grant a religious waiver is arbitrary and. . But advocates argue that more sweeping changes are needed, in part because shaving waivers are often misunderstood and hurt Airmen's careers. One civilian study from 2018 showed that 98% of study participants with an eighth-inch of beard passed the fit test with respirators that are similar to the M-50 gas masks used in the military in terms of material and fit. Religious beards in the military were allowed in 2017. The Quran, too, was used in a similar manner. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md. 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. The female hair changes were not a want, it was very much a need based on health first when I talk with our men in uniform: Is this a need or is this a want?. The military branch said it will remove "adverse information" from the records of those who sought an exemption on "religious, administrative, or medical grounds and who received adverse actions solely due to their . 173rd Fighter Wing Airmen may begin taking advantage of new uniform regulations allowing religious exemptions such as beards, hijabs, and turbans while in uniform. Many airmen on social media called for abandoning the beard prohibition altogether. Airmen who need to grow out their facial hair in uniform can take heart that the top enlisted airman, Chief Master Sgt. Despite being in line with regulations, airmen with waivers reported feeling stigmatized for wearing facial hair. Master Sgt. 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. While these issues affected airmen of all races who had shaving waivers equally, Black or African-American airmen made up the majority of the waiver holders and thus bore a disproportionate share of the consequences. According to the updated regulation, Dress and Personal Appearance of Air Force Personnel, the Air Force allows all such apparel and beards as long as the airmen wearing them make it through a religious accommodation waiver process, that they appear neat and conservative, and that the apparel and beards don't interfere with personal safety. I can assure you that we are focused on our Airmen; they are the most competitive advantage we haveand we must get the people piece right.. In the words of the Hungarian scholar Goldziher, 'The history of religion . During tours of less than 30 days, A ir Force Reserve (AFR) and Air National Guard (ANG) chaplains not on extended active duty may request a beard waiver for religious observance when consistent with their faith. Chief Bass comment demonstrates her commitment to changing the culture, and there seems to be some progress already. When requests are precluded by military necessity, commanders and supervisors should seek reasonable alternatives.. Be aware though, that the belief must be sincere, which means you will likely be interviewed by the chaplain about your beliefs, and they will advise your CC on whether or not your beliefs are sincere, or you're just trying to get a beard. Requests should normally be recommended for approval unless approval would have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, standards, or discipline, the Air Force wrote. Rather than delay his enlistment, Comer decided to shave his beard and apply for the accommodation at a later date. He received a beard waiver on July 8, 2019. Dress and Personal Appearance of Air Force Personnel, Airman 1st Class Harpreetinder Singh Bajwa. The new findings build off a preliminary study published in December which said that shaving waivers had negatively affected the careers of many airmen, especially those of color. DAFI 52-201 is the governing regulation for religious accommodation. According to the regulation, turbans, hijabs, under-turbans or other headwear must be plain, dark blue, black, and free of designs or markings except when matching with the airman's camouflage uniform. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Another example of neat and conservative is color. I was willfully ignorant about the impact it was having on young Black men, he said. If you saw a man that had a beard, you could almost guarantee that they were a good person, that you could go to them for help," Sopchak said. The Air Force Surgeon General has approved five-year waivers allowing male airmen with a medical condition causing painful ingrown hairs to grow beards, the service said Tuesday. 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. We are working to take away the stigma attached to airmen who have a medical need or a religious accommodation for facial hair. Abdul Rahman Gaitan, 821st Contingency Response Squadron aerial porter, was among the first to be granted a religious accommodation for a shaving waiver based . Click here. David Roza So I am not some expert I just watch YouTube videos of the teachings of Islam. The DAF will remove adverse information from records of those currently serving service members who sought. 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. As we work to build a more inclusive force, we are constantly assessing and evaluating all of the processes and programs that affect our Airmen, she said. The Air Force's updated dress and personal appearance policy clarifies the gr ooming and uniform standards for members who wear turbans, hijabs and beards for religious reasons. The Nevada Army Guard said that Sgt. 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The religious accommodation process isn't designed for individuals to play the God/conscience card to get around things they don't like. Sopchak said he was originally raised Baptist, but has not been a Christian for a long time. Such a request for an exemption to a military policy can only be denied, the AFI change said, if the policy furthers a compelling government interest and is the least restrictive way of furthering that interest. The push to create a new Space National Guard got a major boost last week as a bipartisan team of Senators offered new legislationeven as the Pentagon works to craft details on a competing plan. 0. They also make offerings anything from food to drinks to physical objects to their gods during a ceremony called a blot, he said. Last year, Capt. Get your daily fix of Air Force news delivered right to your inbox every day. Rathour graduated Security Forces technical training on Sept. 26, 2019. At first, it appeared Sopchak was the first Heathen to get a beard waiver. *!+zu[XAoC_:X/0{ v8iAU}JqQ.u`6fE_GJTBh$Wx)Vpw#7~rDeI0r\!H(NW|/bcPRHBe0tEyXYD q{ 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. The Air Force has updated its grooming standards to formally allow Airmen to grow neatly trimmed beards, standardizing the religious or medical exemption process. The new religious accommodation rules also cover unshorn beards and unshorn hair such as those worn by members of the Sikh faith under-turbans or patkas, and other indoor or outdoor head coverings. . Comer wore a beard with a religious accommodation waiver, but beards in the Air Force may become far more common after a uniform board considers facial hair in November. But his community now meets in parks or homes to commemorate holidays such as Yule and the solstices. Beards can also be seen as symbols of power, strength, and virility. He also hopes to grow the Heathen community in the area around Hill. There is no potential timeline for approval, because it isnt even at that stage, she said. The Sikh Coalition represents Airman 1st Class Gurchetan Singh, who is the first Sikh American to secure a religious accommodation to serve in the Air National Guard. The majority of the waiver group was Black (64.18%), despite that group making up only 12.85% of the cohort. ), the Washington Post, and others. In December, The Air Force released a sweeping review which found that Black service members are disproportionately punished and promoted more slowly when compared to their White peers. Thats according to a new research paper published last week in the journal Military Medicine, which found that Air Force regulations against facial hair disproportionately affect Black or African American airmen and can lead to slower rates of promotion and limited job opportunities within the service. Those calls accelerated earlier this year, when the Air Force changed its regulations to allow for women to wear braids, ponytails and bangs in order to prevent irreversible hair loss and migraines stemming from the old hair regulations. W2~@R>tA);|6[ +XnDnQi\k`LF. DAFI52-201 23 JUNE 2021 5 Written request for accommodation received by The same was true for airmen trying to hit the rank of staff sergeant (E-5). That study, which involved 798 airmen responding to emailed surveys, called for more research and data on the subject. Yes, Navy Seals can grow beards. According to the memo, which was first posted on the unofficial Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco July 12, Sopchak can wear a neat, conservative beard that presents a professional, well-groomed military appearance and stays no more than two inches from the bottom of his chin.