Navy, Marines order annual mask fit training amid tighter grooming standards

All service members in the Navy and Marine Corps now must complete annual training in the proper fitting and seal of gas masks, a reflection of the stricter grooming standards that are limiting shaving exemptions.

The new requirement applies to active-duty sailors and Marines as well as reservists in both services. It was announced last week in messages to their respective forces.

“All tight-fitting respiratory equipment requires an unobstructed seal between the facepiece and skin,” the Marine Corps said Friday. “Personnel shall be clean shaven at the respirator seal surface when undergoing required annual … testing or training.”

The Navy, meanwhile, said the mandate seeks to ensure that “the proper use and effectiveness of protective breathing equipment is not compromised.”

It also complies with recent Defense Department directives related to grooming compliance and annual training to validate mask fit, according to the Navy message Thursday.

The services have long argued that facial hair hinders an effective gas mask fit. The breathing apparatus is intended to protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

The Navy has not publicly released or announced the results of a gas mask study completed in March 2023. The study was initiated in part by a legal challenge to grooming standards related to religious accommodations.

The gas mask fit training requirements follow Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s effort to tighten grooming standards across the military, end permanent medical shaving waivers and reevaluate religious beard exemptions.

Hegseth has said that lax grooming and physical fitness standards are reflective of poor military discipline and could affect readiness.

Last month, the Navy released a new facial hair policy that could see sailors who have spent at least a year on medical shaving waivers considered for separation from the service as early as next month.

The policy doesn’t aim to remove sailors from the Navy but rather intends to help those with medical conditions such as razor bumps receive appropriate medical treatment, according to the service.

In June, the Navy said it was reconsidering all shaving waivers that are based on religious grounds, requiring all affected sailors to reapply for the exemption.

As part of that reevaluation, sailors must explain their religious beliefs, practices and commitment to those beliefs, to a chaplain. They also will have to detail how those beliefs are “burdened” by the service’s grooming requirements.

It’s also uncertain how the new gas mask requirements will affect another legal challenge to Navy and Marine Corps grooming standards related to religious observance.

That case involves the religious accommodation request of a Sikh Marine related to his post-recruit training service, including restrictions on where he could deploy while maintaining an unshaved beard.

In its message to the force, the Navy specified that sailors assigned sea duty stateside or overseas must complete the mask fit training by Friday.

That requirement also applies to other sailors on certain land-based assignments stateside or overseas, according to the Navy guidelines.

Some commanders, including those over U.S. Pacific Fleet and Naval Special Warfare Command, have until Aug. 31 to complete the requirement. Shore-duty sailors have until Dec. 31 to complete the training, the Navy said.

Commanders of active-duty Marines must submit a detailed plan by Sept. 30 to their commanding officers to ensure full compliance with annual mask fit and seal testing.

Those commanders have until Dec. 31 to submit a plan for the reserve component, according to the service’s message.