Why Did Special Forces Soldiers Grow Beards?

[shaywright]

We had a MARSOC guy as a combat instructor, his reasoning was "wtf are they gonna do? Fire their special forces? Ill do what I want"

[PaddyInf]

We had beards in the early Afghanistan days because we were in isolated PBs and couldn't guarantee clean water resups. Using water to shave was a waste.
Beards are allowed now in the British military, though some 18 year old with a face full of bum fluff does look a bit shit when you're trying to look smart.

[JaydenMeunier]

Special Forces soldiers are often allowed to wear beards while other soldiers typically aren't because of operational needs to blend in with local populations and avoid being easily identified as military personnel, especially when operating in foreign countries.

[v]

Btw beards are useful in hand to hand combat they absorb hits and reduce ur chances of getting knocked out

[TheCanuckCanadain]

Easy. You're a pawn in the military. Your a specal pawn in the specal forces

[Jordi]

The Dutch military was called the hippie army as far back as the 80's because we had long hair and beards

[Scarlettpratik]

INDIAN SF's OR PARA SF HAVE THEIR PERMISSION TO MAKE BEARD ACCORDING TO THE MISSION AND ONLY 9TH PARA 7TH PARA HAVE PERMISSION BUT IN SIZE FOR MISSIONS

[BreizhAtao]

We have beards in French army as well...

[maniak]

I would have introduced them to lice . Lol

[isthatneo_DeepInTheDarkZone]

My JROTC instructor fanatically hates beards. He was a CBRN and was scared that facial hair would prevent soldiers from properly sealing a gas mask

[PearBey]

Azerbaijanian Special Forces Mentoined RAAHHH

[Beesting]

What if one like has a really hard time growing a beard and can barely grow a mustache

[Fami_Arc]

I can confirm! My dad is a sf and he was a part of most if not all of the deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan or whatever, but when he came home he always had this big beard, and talked about how he helped teach all of the soldiers there to fight, he almost lost his life in a ambush from just a teen boy with a rifle but luckily the bullets path got turned away from
His head because of his helmet, he still has the helmet, that’s where my dad met my mom actually, they were both serving in afgan when they met each other, it’s pretty cool, he has this elites shelf of awards and medals and cool little trinkets from different countries he was deployed too

[IzButter]

Yeah no beards but I heard one guy say you could have a 1inch by 1 inch mustache

[slyllamademon]

Main reason we don’t allow beards is the boys who join the military at 18 look awful with facial hair.

[joshualittle]

The gas mask thing is a myth. We had beards in the Army for over 100 years. In WWI they banned beards because of gas masks. That lasted a while but the gas mask thing has not actually been an issue since the mid 1990s because we have different masks today that beards don't interfere with. The beard thing is just Army Brass refusing to change and adapt.

[Xyz]

It's just "soonat payambar"

[yeeeeahboii]

Soviets didn't need a beard in Afganistan)

[BlueSpirit-xlze]

Yk they didn't need to go back on their grooming policy, Command can decide when they want to make a exception

[Vasher-The-Destroyer]

Basically the army brass through a hissy fit that they would have to leave their old standards behind to adapt to the culture in order to properly fight in it.