Hegseth won’t meet troops with beards during South Korea trip; Task & Purpose, October 27, 2025

JEFF SCHOGOL, Task & Purpose; Hegseth won’t meet troops with beards during South Korea trip

[Kip Currier: The absurdity of the news that "Hegseth won't meet troops with beards during South Korea trip" compels me to comment on this disconcerting decision:

Stop for a moment and think about how ridiculous, arrogant, and narrow-minded it is that the head of the Department of Defense-cum-War would refuse to meet with members of our military -- selflessly serving overseas to protect their country -- who have "shaving waivers". Shaving waivers are issued for a number of well-founded reasons, including religious faith traditions and medical conditions in which shaving can cause serious skin irritation.

Refusing to meet with U.S. military members who have facial hair is appallingly short-sighted, uninformed, and disrespectful. 

Thank you to all of our military members -- those with and those without facial hair -- who serve.]

[Excerpt]

"When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visits South Korea this week, he will face off against one of the most dangerous enemies to military readiness: Facial hair.

Service members with shaving waivers are not allowed to attend the event with Hegseth, which will be held at Camp Humphreys, according to an email from the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base, South Korea, which was posted on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco page...

Since taking charge at the Pentagon in January, Hegseth has made it clear that he feels the U.S. military has strayed from its grooming standards by issuing too many shaving waivers over the years.

“Today at my direction, the era of unprofessional appearance is over,” Hegseth told hundreds of generals and admirals during a Sept. 30 speech at Quantico, Virginia. “No more beardos. The age of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done.”

Hegseth’s comments came after he issued an Aug. 20 memo directing unit commanders to begin separating troops who still need shaving waivers after more than a year of medical treatment."

One-third of US military could be robotic by 2039: Milley; Military Times, July 14, 2024

Riley Ceder, Military Times; One-third of US military could be robotic by 2039: Milley

"The 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff believes growing artificial intelligence and unmanned technology could lead to robotic military forces in the future.

“Ten to fifteen years from now, my guess is a third, maybe 25% to a third of the U.S. military will be robotic,” said retired Army Gen. Mark Milley at an Axios event Thursday launching the publication’s Future of Defense newsletter.

He noted these robots could be commanded and controlled by AI systems."

‘Judeo-Christian’ roots will ensure U.S. military AI is used ethically, general says; The Washington Post, July 22, 2023

Shera Avi-Yonah , The Washington Post; ‘Judeo-Christian’ roots will ensure U.S. military AI is used ethically, general says

"A three-star Air Force general said the U.S. military’s approach to artificial intelligence is more ethical than adversaries’ because it is a “Judeo-Christian society,” an assessment that drew scrutiny from experts who say people from a wide range of religious and ethical traditions can work to resolve the dilemmas AI poses.

Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore Jr. made the comment at a Hudson Institute event Thursday while answering a question about how the Pentagonviews autonomous warfare. The Department of Defense has been discussing AI ethics at its highest levels, said Moore, who is the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programs.

“Regardless of what your beliefs are, our society is a Judeo-Christian society, and we have a moral compass. Not everybody does,” Moore said. “And there are those that are willing to go for the ends regardless of what means have to be employed.”"

Navy Official: Concerns About Intellectual Property Rights Becoming More 'Acute'; National Defense, NDIA's Business & Technology Magazine, November 29, 2018

Connie Lee, National Defense, NDIA's Business & Technology Magazine;

Navy Official: Concerns About Intellectual Property Rights Becoming More 'Acute'

"Capt. Samuel Pennington, major program manager for surface training systems, said the fear of losing data rights can sometimes make companies reluctant to work with the government.
“We get feedback sometimes where they’re not willing to bid on a contract where we have full data rights,” he said. “Industry [is] not going to do that because they have their secret sauce and they don’t want to release it.”
Pennington said having IP rights would allow the Defense Department to more easily modernize and sustain equipment.
“Our initiative is to get as much data rights, or buy a new product that has open architecture to the point where [the] data rights that we do have are sufficient, where we can recompete that down the road,” he said. This would prevent the Navy from relying on the original manufacturer for future work on the system, he noted.
The issue is also being discussed on Capitol Hill, Merritt added. The fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act requires the Pentagon to develop policy on the acquisition or licensing of intellectual property. Additionally, the NDAA requires the department to negotiate a price for technical data rights of major weapon systems."

Lesser-seen color photos showing the U.S. military in the 1940s; The Washington Post, May 28, 2018

Kenneth Dickerman, The Washington Post; Lesser-seen color photos showing the U.S. military in the 1940s

"In 1942, six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt created the OWI. While the [Farm Security Administration] FSA was created to depict the hardships that farmers were facing, the OWI’s mission was to foster patriotism as the nation mobilized for war during World War II. In that vein, it served as a government propaganda arm. The majority of the photos that the FSA and the [Office of War Information] OWI produced were black and white and are those that people are more familiar with. The color photos shown here are far less frequently seen."

The Cruelty and Cynicism of Trump’s Transgender Ban; New Yorker, July 26, 2017

David Remnick, New Yorker; The Cruelty and Cynicism of Trump’s Transgender Ban: The President’s tweets are a naked attempt to divert attention from his scandals.

"Let’s begin with the retrograde cruelty. There are thousands of transgender people already serving among the 1.3 million active-duty members of the military. These are people who have volunteered their service and have potentially put their lives on the line, and yet their President, who managed to come up with a flimsy doctor’s note back in the day, denies them their dignity, their equality. He will not “accept or allow” them in the military. Imagine the scale of this insult...

It is implausible that Trump paid much attention to his highest-ranking generals, or to experts, generally; Secretary of Defense James Mattis has supported transgender individuals joining the military. And the hardly radical Rand Corporation has published an in-depth study refuting the idea that transgender soldiers are somehow expensive, or that they undermine the morale and cohesion of the military over all. Trump’s decision to bar transgender people from the military is pure politics, cheap and cruel politics, a naked attempt to divert attention from his woes, to hold on to support from his base—a base that he believes will cheer his latest attempt to do battle with the secular-humanist coastal élites who are so obsessed with identity politics. (One Administration official told Axios’s Jonathan Swan that the move was intended to force Democrats from Rust Belt states to take “complete ownership of this issue.”) In other words, it is a decision straight out of the Steve Bannon playbook. Cue the organs of the alt-right press.

Trump likes to declare what a “disaster” the military is, how deeply it has fallen into disrepair, and how he will be its salvation. When you begin to consider the meanness of what Trump has done, it is worth remembering him saying that he was “smarter” than the generals on military matters, and that he mocked John McCain’s service in Vietnam because “I like people who weren’t captured.” When you begin to think about the scale of this offense, it is worth remembering Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who lost a son in Iraq, addressing Trump directly from the lectern of the Democratic National Convention: “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”"