Hey, what’s up with that ‘stache’ in 1972 Army?
The only time I have gotten 2,580 responses about anything on Facebook was my Army-approved moustache of 1972, captured for posterity in my “basic training portrait photograph.”
I posted on a group devoted to veterans who served at Ft. Ord, Calif., near Monterey. Seeing my “basic” photo with a moustache, more than a few of my Army veteran brothers just didn’t believe it, or believe me.
One poster wrote, “There were no mustash in basic. Not ever!”
I begged to differ. I sat for the portrait, like we all did, and returned to the rifle range.
It was kind of like sitting for a high school photo. We lined up and were given a dress jacket and dress hat, the one we called “the bus driver hat.” Later, there would be a sporty World War II-style forage cap with a paratrooper patch on it, and after that, a while, a red beret allowed for Airborne troops.
But on that day in spring 1972, you sat for the portrait taken to send home to Mom, and family, wearing your dress jacket, cap, Class A, Dress, and your boxer shorts. That’s right. It was a head and shoulder shot.
They weren’t wasting any time with people climbing into Army Class A dress trousers set aside for the occasion. You sat in your boxers, with the jacket buttoned neatly.
So, what gave with the “stache?” The Vietnam War was ending, and it ended for the Army in 1972, except for a few, very few, Green Berets and various shadowly operators who stayed behind to help the faltering Army of South Vietnam.
The draft was also ending. The modified moustache regulation was part of “The New Army” effort to attract enough recruits as part of the All Volunteer Army, “VOLAR,” it was called. Moustaches. There were even beer dispensing machines allowed into some of the barracks. That did not last, thank goodness.
But the “New Army” needed us. The guy who said, “No mustash. Not ever!” said the one in my photo did not comply with AR 670-1. That means Army regulation. So, I looked up the “Reg.” It said “neatly trimmed and tapered.” A couple of the 2,580 posters — Army veterans of many eras — said that Pvt. Anderson’s “stache” did not comply.
Many others posting said, “Thank you for your service.” And a few even said, “Looks good.” And some agreed that, yes, in 1972, even in Basic Training at Ft. Ord, you could keep your moustache. Others disagreed, sometimes vehemently.
Our drill sergeants were all Vietnam combat veterans, as evidenced by their “right shoulder patch” with combat unit, and a combat infantry badge stitched on their starched GI green utility blouses. Almost all had moustaches, and one sported a “handlebar” moustache, like a gun fighter — which he was, a righteous gunfighter. Another moustache was adopted by our commanding officer, Capt. Phillip C. Wimert, also s Vietnam combat.
A former Army career man, a first sergeant, meaning company “topkick” senior non-commissioned officer, noted of the drill sergeant, “He was lucky he wasn’t in my company.” Maybe so, but the gunfighter was a good drill sergeant.
So, that was the 1970s. The Pentagon gang was doing anything it could to update its image to not look completely “un-hip” in an age of hippies, free love, and rock and roll.
There would be in an institutional fight for several years to figure out what to do about the drugs. Then, what to do about alcohol. And tobacco. And wacky tabacky. It was a culture war, and one that is never completely resolved.
Our long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are over, mostly. We still have some troops in Iraq. We also have a bunch of troops sent back to NATO in Europe where they never should have been pulled out anyway. It was having all those troops that kept the Russians at bay during the long Cold War. Now, we have a new cold war, and the Russians are back.
And we also need volunteers to join the Army. The recruiting pitch that got me was a paratrooper under canopy, and the poster said, “This and $220 a month.” That was enough for me. Draftees had been paid, like, $100, or less, a month.
But last year, the Army, without a big war, or too many small ones, fell short of its recruiting goal by 25,000. That is serious.
They are going to have to be more persuasive these days with American young people to encourage them to join the bravest and most adventurous of their generation. Pay is OK, but they are going to need more than a moustache regulation.
This does not solve a mystery for me. How is it that people, my online friends, who were in our Army team generations ago, are so deeply moved by a couple inches of facial hair? It is a puzzlement.
Dennis Anderson is a licensed clinical social worker at High Desert Medical Group. An Army paratrooper veteran who covered the
Iraq War for the Antelope Valley Press, he serves as Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s appointee on the Los Angeles County Veterans Advisory Commission.