Hegseth refuses to meet American troops with beards during South Korea trip: report

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has continued his campaign against facial hair in the Armed Forces by refusing to meet with bearded troops during his visit to South Korea this week, according to a report.

Hegseth has joined President Donald Trump on his tour of the Far East and is meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi on Wednesday before visiting Camp Humphreys in South Korea, the largest U.S. military base in the world.

However, while he is there, the secretary has given explicit instructions that he will not spend time with soldiers granted “shaver waivers,” medical exemptions from orders to remain clean shaven.

The detail was reported by the military periodical Task and Purpose, citing an email sent in advance of Hegseth’s visit by the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base in South Korea outlining appearance expectations.

“As you know, it is typical for senior leaders to visit the troops when they travel to installations around the world,” an Air Force official told Task and Purpose, confirming the authenticity of the email but declining to dwell on the anti-beard stipulation.

The Independent has contacted the Pentagon for comment.

Hegseth’s fixation with lax personal appearance standards, as he sees it, has become a feature of his tenure leading the Department of War, formerly Defense.

He raised the issue in a March memo to senior military leaders in which he called for a review of all fitness, body composition, and grooming standards, “which includes but is not limited to beards.”

The secretary went further in another memo in August in which he called for a “clean-shaven military” and gave full vent to his feelings in the address he delivered to top brass, assembled at huge expense and inconvenience, at Quantico, Virginia, on September 30.

In his speech on “warrior ethos,” Hegseth told his highly-decorated audience: “Today, at my direction, the era of unprofessional appearance is over. No more beardos. The age of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done.”

“We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans,” he continued. “No more beards, long hair, superficial individual expression. We’re going to cut our hair, shave our beards, and adhere to standards. If you want a beard, you can join special forces. If not, then shave.”

All of which is surprising because, as The Daily Beast has pointed out, Hegseth himself turned up at Fox News in August 2018, in his previous guise as a presenter, sporting a “vacation beard,” which was ultimately shaved off on air at the urging of his co-hosts.

“I’m hoping to keep a mustache,” Hegseth joked in the segment.