Beth asked, so I'll give my 0.02:
One reason for shaving is a discipline issue. Keeping yourself in shape and
clean looking is supposed to show good discipline (to I buy that? Hmm.....).
Another reason is you look good for inspections
(which they even did in the field - I remember Grandad telling me
about having to shine up and get cleaned up while in the trenchlines in WW1
because the King was going to drive by and they had to all be
out in their best, cleaned up, at attention - the sod didn't even
look out.....). Another modern reason is many gas masks don't make
accomodations for them. (Makes it hard to get a seal). Said masks often don't
make good allowance for spectacles either (I hate the
Army issue combat spectacles) and wearing contacts in a chem-bio (or
even very dirty) environment is anathema.
Hair, they keep to specified lengths (unless you're in the Navy, seemingly,
who can get permission for beards) because in the field
(as a grunt), you need some hair (I think 1/4" was the minimum) to
protect from sunstroke/burn and you want little of it because it is
often hot and therefore more hair equals more chance of heat related distress.
And hair (beard or cranial) is an ideal living place for all manner of lovely
little biting contagious vermin.
So there are practical reasons for the limitations on hair length, but their
is also the military culture of "sameness" that plays a role. If everyone
looks like a buzzcutt, identically uniformed little grunt, it makes it a bit
easier to depersonalize them, treat them like expendable resources, and order
them to do things that will kill them.
Or at least this is some of the comments I've seen or read over the years and
some of my own experience in the infantry.
Tomb.
> Hair, they keep to specified lengths (unless you're in the Navy,
Does the British Navy still pay you extra for having a beard?
> --- kaladorn@magma.ca wrote:
> Grandad telling me
Heh. We had everything from US SecDef to Italian brigadier generals visiting
us in Kosovo and we never cleaned up more than normal. But then again, our
normal was pretty good-looking.
> sod didn't even
Actually, the way the US Army handles it is by issuing specially made optical
inserts put into the mask itself.
> distress. And hair (beard or cranial) is an ideal
When I last went to NTC, I got a basic trainee haircut
and kept it that way--no heat stroke because we're
wearing headgear the entire time, and sand mixed with sweat is hideously
uncomfortable. Grew it back out the last week (reconstitution) but I generally
do that any time I'll be playing Army for more than 2 weeks.
> Actually, the way the US Army handles it is by issuing
And those are a TREAT! let me tell you:)
I particularly enjoyed almost losing an eye to the older ones (early '90's)
that mounted in the mask using two wires on the interior of the eyepieces...
You see, when donning the mask, the wires had this tendency to pop out... and
since you're putting the mask on quickly...
> On Fri, 2002-08-02 at 15:01, Jim Callahan wrote:
what do the new ones look like?
those are the same ones that almost maimed me as well...always losing the darn
things inside the mask too!
jim
> On Friday, August 2, 2002, at 02:37 PM, Flak Magnet wrote:
> I particularly enjoyed almost losing an eye to the older ones (early
We also use inserts. When you rotate out of service you get to keep them... I
got back into the business about a year after I drafted out... Guess who had
time to lose his inserts?:) It still works though.... Just dont ask me to
shoot with the mask and hit a mansize target with more then 50% certainty at
400 mtrs...:)
--- Flak Magnet <flakmagnet@tabletop-battlezone.com>
wrote:
> I particularly enjoyed almost losing an eye to the
> --- Jim Callahan <jim@tablegamer.com> wrote:
There's been two changes. The last type had a sort of frame that fit inside
the eyepieces. I don't know what the newest type is like, since although I got
issued the lenses for it, the frame has to be ordered by our NBC guy. I could
care less since I still have my older pattern ones and they work just fine.
> those are the same ones that almost maimed me as well...always losing
I also used those $#%*+$ optical inserts. The biggest problem was that
even with the antifog cleaners they still fogged up or started dripping after
you wore the mask for a time. I was cleaning out a box of stuff 2 years ago
and finally got around to throwing them away.
As a side light after 40 years of using glasses (my eyesight was 20 by 200) I
got Lasik Eye Surgery last year and am now able to see distances without
glasses. I could never stand contacts but for about 15 minutes of discomfort
it was worth it. The only scary part is that when almost done with the surgery
I smelled something burning and it was me.
Now they have wire "rings" that fit inside the eyepieces. They're
spring-loaded and goofy looking, hard to describe. Imagine the bow and
earpiece of your glasses being a "C" shape where the open end is toward the
bridge between the lenses. That "C" shape is compressed, fitted into the
eyepiece of the mask and released so that spring tension keeps it in place.
The bridge is a spring, so that folding the mask (or just storing it for the
newer "store flat" masks) doesn't screw them up.
I had still seen those pop out, but but less often, and much less painfully.
--Flak
> On Fri, 2002-08-02 at 16:56, Jim Callahan wrote:
> --- Scott Siebold <gamers@ameritech.net> wrote:
> As a side light after 40 years of using glasses (my
The Army has finally admitted that this surgery is permissible, and has even
(allegedly) begun performing it. However, the waiting list is going to be
ridiculous. Basically, if I got on it now, I might get the surgery done by the
Army about the same time I pin on Sergeant Major. For one thing, most military
hospitals don't have the equipment to do it. Oh, and they're sorting by MOS
which means pilots and infantrymen are first. I believe combat engineers will
be ahead of pogues but behind all other combat arms, as usual.