Last week, the Army authorized ponytails and braids for female soldiers in all uniforms. While many troops celebrated the change, there has been backlash from some on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow about females maintain the SAME standard as men instead of loosening the standards for one gender?\u201d said one Army Times Facebook commenter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is the dislike button?\u201d said another. \u201cThis doesn\u2019t look professional and doesn\u2019t uphold the standards that come with wearing the uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hundreds more sounded off, wanting beards. Other commenters said things that aren\u2019t fit for print.<\/p>\n
But at least one soldier, a senior noncommissioned officer, is facing a commander\u2019s inquiry after implying in a Facebook post over the weekend that following the new regulation could be detrimental to female soldiers\u2019 career prospects.<\/p>\n
Master Sgt. Don Blackall prefaced his Facebook post as an \u201cold school rant, subject: ponytails.\u201d He described his first encounter with a woman wearing a ponytail in the Army Combat Uniform as \u201cterrible,\u201d saying \u201cit appeared unkempt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yes, the regulation now allows females to wear ponytails in all uniforms. No one can stop a female from doing so,\u201d Blackall said. \u201cHowever\u2026females who have their hair in a bun will be viewed more favorable than those who choose the ponytail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blackall then identified himself as a judge advocate general senior enlisted advisor for SETAF-AF headquarters, and as \u201ca permanent member on my battalion\u2019s monthly promotion boards.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy opinion matters whether you like it or not,\u201d said Blackall at the end of his post.<\/p>\n
Officials at the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa \u2014 Blackall\u2019s overarching command \u2014 distanced the organization from the comments, saying that Blackall\u2019s positions \u201care not\u201d those of the command.<\/p>\n
SETAF-AF also launched a preliminary investigation this week into whether the social media post violated Army guidelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cSETAF-AF leadership strongly agrees with and is following the updated Army policy on uniform and grooming standards,\u201d said command spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon. \u201cSETAF-AF is currently reviewing the post and the circumstances and will make a determination of whether or not there are any violations of Army policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a preliminary investigation underway,\u201d Dillon added.<\/p>\n
Soldiers\u2019 promotion boards also won\u2019t be derailed by one member who remains in opposition to new policy, Dillon stressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSETAF-AF considers all eligible Soldiers for promotion and holds monthly promotion boards,\u201d he added. \u201cAll promotion boards consist of a diverse group of senior NCOs as board members to ensure fair and equitable advancement opportunities for proven Soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Screenshots of Blackall\u2019s post began circulating on social media Sunday afternoon, and Army Times viewed an original copy of the post from a source who is Facebook friends with him.<\/p>\n
Blackall has since changed his name on Facebook and restricted his privacy settings, but not before some senior Army leaders weighed in over social media, as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In today’s Army, this master sergeant had to have known he was committing career suicide, right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We talked last week about the Army’s new ponytail rules for female soldiers in uniform. One … MSG’s “Old school rant” against the Army’s new ponytail allowance draws ire<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,447,177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-dick-stepping","category-dumbass-bullshit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113455,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113454\/revisions\/113455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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