Facial Hair in the 20 and 21st Century

[patches]

One Milo Peck of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, date and location unknown.

[MinutemanEMTer]

Mustache March is just around the corner.

 

In case no one has heard of this tradition, Col. Robin Olds, USAF thumbed his nose at 'the establishment' by growing his mustache way out of what AFREG 35-10 stated at the time while as a fighter pilot in the Vietnam theater. 

 

As a salute to Col. Olds, many of those in the Air Force, especially the old Tactical Air Command grew out their mustaches in March of each year.

 

[268th C.A.]

Cornelius Glover, I cant find much on who he was. But he signed the RPPC. 

[patches]

A Marine Cook on The Canal, October 1942, since his fellow Cook is clean shaven, we believe he has purposely grown the beard.

 

[Salvage Sailor]

Lest you doubt that swabbies could still have full beards in the 1970's, even in dress uniforms, it was called 'Tradition'...

 

[patches]

 

Here's one for you, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Carl Otto Ostrom 47 years old Oakland, California December 1943, just back from the South Pacific, we assume he was in the 1st Marine Division, and apparently is a medical evac, combat fatigue?, In the Marines since 1917, he is veteran of World War I, and having seen service in China, Guam, Guadalcanal.

[patches]

Robert Henry Stanley MOH in the early 20s when he retired, won the MOH in the Boxer Rebellion in Peking as a Hospital Apprentice off USS Newark.

[patches]

Ay Friend

 

Another Amish Looking guy 

[patches]

1st Abn BG 327th Inf 101st Abn Div C.O. Wm Kuhn with his Mustachio LOL. Little Rock 57.

[patches]

The Great Beard Contest of 1941

https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2015/06/19/the-great-beard-contest-of-1941/

 

[Brig]

8 hours ago, patches said:

The Great Beard Contest of 1941

https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2015/06/19/the-great-beard-contest-of-1941/

 

 

Man, what that contest would do for morale in today's military....

[BeansEnHay]

On 5/19/2023 at 10:31 PM, patches said:

Ay Friend

 

Another Amish Looking guy 

 

[BeansEnHay]

Speaking of the Amish. I served with a Sikh soldier in the 502nd S+ T Bn (2nd AD). As a tenant of their faith, they must not cut their hair, including facial hair. Not only did he have a full beard, but wore an OD turban. He was a cook too, so a familiar face to the whole Bn.

Rob

[The Rooster]

U.S. Marines carry a wounded comrade on a stretcher during combat near the Kokumbona river. USMC/Interim Archives/Getty Images

 

 

 

[patches]

Here's a first a Sailor in WWII, a Beard of course, but he has Pieced Ears! A piece of Coral perhaps???

[patches]

Two more Navy Men, this time in Vietnam like 1969 say, with an Army Americal Division Donut Dollie, believe this is in Da Nang, Americal Division stationed in the general region there, Sailors then being of Naval Support Activity Da Nang

[DMD]

A dozen enlisted Navy men in the control room of the nuclear power plant at McMurdo Station, Antarctic in the mid 1960s.  The PM-3A plant was designed by the Martin Corporation for the Army Nuclear Power Program, but it was operated and maintained by the Naval Nuclear Power Unit .  The guys at the lower left and upper right are wearing the unit's patch, which resembles the Seabee patch with the bee carrying a geiger counter instead of a gun.

[atb]

Can you comment on the headgear?

[DMD]

Under magnification, it looks like the berets have a patch with a symbol of the atom, and a metal rank insignia (normally for the shirt collar) is pinned to the patch.  I would like to know about the patch with the cat and top hat, worn by the man on the left of the front row.  I am not familiar with it.

[patches]

A Swabbie with a beard, could be from the mid 70s when the Navy had those uniforms, and he is say not a Chief but a PO 1st Class.

[patches]

He's Henry Pierson Crowe, USMC,1945, 8th Marines, The Canal, Tarawa, Saipan, long diverse carrier in the Marines, came in late WWI, October 1918, got out in sometime in 1919, came back in in sometime in 1921, was in Korea, retired in 1960 as a Full Colonel, 40 years all told, didn't make Brigadier General for some reason.

 

Cool Mustache right.

[patches]

Radioman First Class Benjamin A. Bottoms United States Coast Guard WWII with his specifcally grown beard, Bottoms died in those Greenland rescue attempts of a Flying Fortress Crew in November 1942.

[patches]

WWII

 

Petty Officer First Class Oliver C. Guest, Submariner. Crewman aboard the Sub USS Golet, Golet Lost with All Hands Northwest of Honshu, June 14 1944, Guest is commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing at the Punchbowl in Hawaii.

[The Rooster]

Some of the crew of USS Crevalle has some serious beards!

 

 

 

 

[patches]

A wounded Marine of the of a Tank Battalion being taken away, not sure where this is or unit, it's not Iwo for sure, perhaps then the Marianas, Peleliu? See the Facial Hair on the one Marine giving aid, since everyone else is shaved, perhaps a specifically grown beard,