The Pentagon will reform its fitness and grooming standards alongside Defense Secretary Fitter Hegses’ vision and a vision for a clean, shaved military, according to policy documents published online.
Hegses, who prefers the second-degree title of war chief, announced his move in his September 30 policy speech to the assembled general and admiral in an auditorium at Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. He denounced the “fat general” when announcing the policy changes.
According to policy notes, fitness tests increase the frequency and intensity of active duty forces that currently have to pass double the test per year. Military men also measure body fat twice a year.
Forces with combat-centric employment, such as infantry and tank crews, must meet male-based testing criteria on the annual general fitness test and must complete the “combat field test” once a year.
Heggs, who has long claimed that women benefited from lowering fitness standards when they took up combat weapons jobs during the former Barack Obama administration, said the move “doesn’t prevent women from serving.”
The war secretary also accused the military of allowing medical or religious exemptions to increase their beards and labeling such military personnel as “Biados.”
Implementation notes specify that the Pentagon will “return to pre-2020 standards” for medical shaving exemptions. This means that the troops will no longer be able to receive a permanent shaving exemption to prevent a relapse of the skin condition of pseudogonadenitis.
