2026-07-10T10:35:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
华盛顿 —— 在美国军方正忙于针对伊朗的持续军事行动以及应对一系列其他国家安全挑战之际，五角大楼高级官员们还在推进一项截然不同的优先事项：收紧美国军人的仪容、体能和外表标准。
就在国防部长皮特·赫格斯塞思去年在海军陆战队匡蒂科基地向一众上将和将军发表直截了当的讲话，宣称将“不再有胡子佬”和“肥胖军人”九个月后，军方官员近期已采取措施处理不符合发型、体重和体能标准的军人。
据熟悉此事的美国官员透露，这位曾担任陆军国民警卫队退伍军人、前福克斯新闻主持人的赫格斯塞思，近日私下抱怨看到军人留胡须，并对体能训练松懈以及违反军方身高体重标准的情况表示不满。
一名不愿具名的军方官员告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，由于未获公开讲话授权，该官员以匿名方式接受了采访，他表示赫格斯塞思认为尽管他多次在公开和私下场合呼吁更严格地执行规定，但军方高级领导层并未完全接受他的讯息。这位官员称，国防部长对自己去年在匡蒂科向全球各地集结的高级军官发表的演讲未能带来他预期的快速改变感到沮丧。
“赫格斯塞思部长对我们的军人抱有最高期望，要求他们维护定义我们作战部队的专业外表、体能和纪律标准，他将继续强调在所有军衔层级中统一执行发型、体重和仪容标准，”五角大楼发言人肖恩·帕内尔在给哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的一份声明中说道。
他补充道：“各级指挥官都应以身作则，达到这些标准，落实这些要求，随着国防部致力于恢复卓越和备战的文化，他们将为取得成果承担责任。当每一名军人都达到并超越这些期望时，我们的武装部队会更加强大。”
五角大楼重新强调的这一政策，体现在去年发布的一份国防部备忘录中，该备忘录指示指挥官启动程序，将那些在接受治疗一年多后仍需剃须豁免的现役和预备役军人驱逐出部队。
这项政策重新引发了关于军事纪律与为有合法医疗或宗教豁免的军人提供便利之间平衡的争论。武装部队在特定情况下允许留胡须，包括锡克教、穆斯林和犹太教军人，他们的宗教信仰要求留胡子。在新的五角大楼政策出台前，美国军人若被诊断为须部假性毛囊炎（俗称剃须疹）——一种主要影响黑人男性的疼痛性皮肤疾病——也可获得剃须豁免。
多项研究估计，约45%至83%的黑人男性会患上这种疾病。患有多毛症的女性在剃须时也可能出现这种情况，多毛症会导致女性长出类似男性模式的粗糙深色面部毛发。
根据赫格斯塞思去年12月向各军种发布的五角大楼指导意见，军方正在全面改革体成分测量方式，以恢复他所要求的“勇士精神”，并出台了将剃须视为军事战备而非外表问题的指导方针。
获得医疗剃须豁免的军人必须接受治疗和定期评估，豁免期限通常限制为90天。若在接受一年治疗后仍无法在不引发不适的情况下剃须，该军人可能会被部队开除。
官员们表示，这项政策旨在确保军人能够安全佩戴包括军用防毒面具在内的防护装备，同时强化领导人所说的对纪律、部署能力和作战战备至关重要的仪容标准。
关于胡须与防毒面具的争论早已存在。2016年，时任陆军部长埃里克·范宁下令在阿伯丁试验场进行测试，以确定留胡须的锡克教军人能否安全佩戴防护面具。根据范宁的指令，该研究发现标准配发的防毒面具无法在胡须上形成有效密封，但替代装备——包括动力送风过滤式呼吸器和宽松型防护面具——能够在危险环境中提供足够的防护。
赫格斯塞思几乎没有将这些争论与他更广泛的恢复他所认为的军队纪律的运动区分开来。他去年在匡蒂科发表讲话时宣称，“不专业外表的时代已经结束”，将剃须豁免和仪容标准问题作为重建全军标准的更广泛努力的一部分。
许多军人认为，统一的标准和一致性是军事纪律的核心，一些人支持赫格斯塞思加强执行规定的努力。但也有人认为，他的做法可能会将无视规定的军人与那些符合长期医疗和宗教豁免条件的军人一概而论。
赫格斯塞思去年似乎暗示某些宗教豁免毫无道理，他称：“我们的军队不是由北欧异教徒组成的，但不幸的是，我们曾有一些领导人要么拒绝直言不讳地执行标准，要么觉得自己无权执行标准。”美国军方在2017年正式承认异教信仰，不过赫格斯塞思近期对军方用于容纳军人宗教信仰和信念的宗教归属代码进行了全面改革。目前尚不清楚异教徒是否仍会被承认。
在担任国防部长的约18个月里，赫格斯塞思在演讲、政策指令和公开讲话中多次辩称，放松外表标准是军队文化偏离纪律和作战战备的征兆。
这种观点在他就任五角大楼职务之前就已存在。在他的著作《对勇士的战争》中，赫格斯塞思批评了他所说的前后不一致的军事优先事项，称军方曾因“手臂上纹有裸体女性图案”而开除“优秀士兵”，却容忍“剃须、脏辫、丸子头和彻头彻尾的肥胖”等方面的放松标准——尽管他并未提供证据表明此类做法已在全军广泛被接受。
退役陆军特种部队军官迈克·纳尔逊告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，赫格斯塞思对某些标准的批评并非毫无道理，但他表示国防部长过于关注本不属于他职权范围内的问题。
“他的观点没错，只是他花费大量时间和精力去处理本应由营军士长关注的事情，也就是小单位层面的领导力这类事情，这些事情困扰着他，也占用了他大量的时间和精力。”
纳尔逊表示，虽然军队中确实需要合法的剃须豁免，但他认为过去十年里这一程序遭到了滥用，他同意收紧“松散”标准的总体指导方针，但在因可治疗的医疗问题将军人开除的问题上持不同意见。
如果赫格斯塞思认为这是一个国家安全问题，“那没问题”，但纳尔逊称这种做法“荒谬可笑”。
Hegseth frustrated with lack of adherence to grooming rules after “beardos” speech last year
2026-07-10T10:35:00-0400 / CBS News
Washington — As they juggle ongoing U.S. military operations against Iran and a host of other national security challenges, senior Pentagon officials have also been pressing ahead on a far different priority: tightening the grooming, fitness and appearance standards of the American service members.
Military officials have recently taken steps to address troops who fail to meet hair, weight and physical fitness standards, nine months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a blunt message to a room full of admirals and generals at Marine Corps Base Quantico, declaring there would be “no more beardos” and “fat troops.”
The renewed emphasis comes as Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran and former Fox News host, has privately complained in recent days about seeing service members with facial hair and has expressed frustration over lapses in physical training and violations of military height and weight standards, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
One official told CBS News that Hegseth believes his message has not been fully embraced by the military’s senior leadership despite his repeated public and private calls for stricter enforcement. The military official, who is not authorized to speak publicly and talked with CBS News under condition of anonymity, said the defense secretary was frustrated that his speech to the top brass gathered from around the world at Quantico last year did not produce the rapid change he expected.
“Secretary Hegseth maintains the highest expectations for our service members to uphold the professional standards of appearance, fitness, and discipline that define our warfighting force, and he continues to emphasize consistent enforcement of hair, weight, and grooming standards across all ranks,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CBS News.
He added: “Commanders at every level are expected to lead by example by meeting these standards, implementing these requirements, and they will be held accountable for delivering results as the Department works to restore a culture of excellence and readiness. Our Armed Forces are stronger when every service member meets and exceeds these expectations.”
The Pentagon’s renewed focus is reflected in a Defense Department memorandum issued last year directing commanders to initiate proceedings to drum out active-duty and reserve service members who continue to require medical shaving waivers after more than one year of treatment.
The policy has renewed debate over the balance between military discipline and accommodations for troops with legitimate medical or religious exemptions. The armed forces allow facial hair in certain circumstances, including for Sikh, Muslim and Jewish service members whose faith requires beards. Before the new Pentagon policy, shaving waivers were also granted for U.S. troops diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, also known as razor bumps, a painful skin condition that disproportionately affects Black men.
Multiple studies estimate that the condition occurs in roughly 45% to 83% of Black men. It can also develop in women with hirsutism — a condition that causes coarse, dark facial hair to grow in a typically male pattern — when they shave.
The military is overhauling how they measure body composition following Pentagon guidance to all the services issued in December in an effort to restore the “warrior ethos” demanded by Hegseth and has rolled out guidance that frames shaving as a matter of military readiness rather than appearance.
Service members with medical shaving waivers must undergo treatment and periodic evaluations, with waivers generally limited to 90-day increments. Those who remain unable to shave without irritation following a year of treatment may be booted from their service.
Officials said the policy is intended to ensure service members can safely wear protective equipment, including gas masks, which the military calls “respirators,” while reinforcing grooming standards that leaders say are essential to discipline, deployability and combat readiness.
The debate over beards and gas masks is hardly new. In 2016, then-Army Secretary Eric Fanning ordered testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground to determine whether Sikh troops with beards could safely wear protective masks. Fanning wrote that the study found that while standard-issue gas masks did not provide adequate seal over beards, alternative equipment — including powered air-purifying respirators and loose-fitting protective masks — could provide sufficient protection in hazardous environments, according to Fanning’s directive.
Hegseth has made little distinction between those debates and his broader campaign to restore what he views as military discipline. Speaking at Quantico in September, he declared that “the era of unprofessional appearance is over,” casting the issue of shaving waivers and grooming standards as part of a wider effort to rebuild standards across the force.
Many service members agree that consistent standards and uniformity are central to military discipline, and some support Hegseth’s effort to tighten enforcement. But others argue that his approach risks sweeping together troops who simply disregard regulations with those who qualify for long-standing medical and religious accommodations.
Hegseth seemed to suggest last year that some religious accommodations lack merit, saying, “We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans but unfortunately, we have had leaders who either refuse to call BS and enforce standards, or leaders who felt like they were not allowed to enforce standards.” The U.S. military formally recognized the pagan faith in 2017, although Hegseth recently overhauled the religious affiliation codes the military uses to accommodate service members’ faiths and beliefs. It’s not clear whether pagans continue to be recognized.
Over roughly 18 months as defense secretary, Hegseth has repeatedly argued in speeches, policy directives and public remarks that relaxed appearance standards are symptomatic of a military culture that has drifted away from discipline and combat readiness.
That view predates his tenure at the Pentagon. In his book, The War on Warriors, Hegseth criticized what he described as inconsistent military priorities, writing that the armed forces had pushed out “good soldiers for having naked women tattooed on their arms” while tolerating relaxed standards “on shaving, dreadlocks, man buns, and straight-up obesity” — though he offered no evidence that such practices had become broadly accepted across the force.
Mike Nelson, a retired Army Special Forces officer, told CBS News that Hegseth is not wrong in some of his criticism of standards but says the defense secretary is concerned about issues below his office.
“He’s not wrong, he’s just spending a lot of time and effort on things that a battalion sergeant major should be focused on, small unit level leadership kind of things that are getting to him and that are taking up much of his time and focus.”
While there are legitimate shave waivers needed in the military, Nelson said he believes the process was abused over the last decade and he agrees with broad guidance of tightening “sloppy” standards but draws a distinction on the issue of drumming out service members for manageable medical issues.
If Hegseth considers it a national security concern, “then fine,” but Nelson called the approach “ridiculous.”