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Suggested photo: Welsh with his 'stache last year
Suggested Facebook words: "NO MUSTACHE FOR WELSH: After last year's controversy, Gen. Welsh isn't encouraging a force-wide Mustache March.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh was a high-profile booster of a forcewide Mustache March last year — even going so far as to grow his own soup strainer.
But three days into this year's annual Air Force tradition, it appears Welsh will not be taking part.
"I saw the general this morning and didn't see any signs of a mustache, so I'll assume he's not participating in Mustache March this year," Welsh spokesman Lt. Col. Allen Herritage said in a March 3 email. "But he's a huge fan of traditions, even ones that cause a lot of us to look awful during the month of March. So I imagine he's supportive of those units and individuals who decide to participate this year."
And contrary to last year's Mustache March — when Welsh publicly and enthusiastically encouraged units to hold mustache-growing contests — there's been no similar discussions this year at the top levels of the Air Force, Herritage said.
"The topic hasn't come up at all," he said.
Mustache March is an Air Force tradition that dates back to the Vietnam War. The legendary triple-ace fighter pilot Brig. Gen. Robin Olds sported an equally legendary mustache during that war — extravagantly waxed, grown in flagrant defiance of military regulations, and said to be "bulletproof." Olds, who was a colonel while serving in Vietnam, was loved by his men and inspired them to grow out their facial hair.
Over the years, some commands have — officially or unofficially — held contests during March to see who could grow the best mustache as a morale-boosting exercise.
Welsh last February challenged men across the service to take part — but it quickly became controversial.
"I don't think we've ever had an all-in Mustache March, have we?" Welsh said during his Feb. 20, 2014, address to the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium. "I'm putting the smackdown on you guys. Air Force-wide Mustache March, MAJCOM competitions."
A fierce debate erupted on Air Force Times' Flightlines blog the next day. Some airmen thought it was harmless fun; others thought it was sexist. Still others thought it sent the wrong message to airmen about discipline.
And some airmen thought an officially sanctioned Mustache March missed the point, since Olds grew his facial hair to thumb his nose at the brass.
The Air Force did not relax its rules about facial hair during Mustache March, which made other airmen wonder what the point was.
The debate over sexism and Mustache March continued when Air Force Times published a commentary by Maj. Jennifer Holmes titled "I lose: I cannot grow a mustache." In it, she argued that a brass-sanctioned contest in which only men could can participate further excludeds women from Air Force culture.
"This 'gauntlet' thrown down by the most senior leader in our Air Force does not bring us together by tradition," Holmes said. "It promotes the long-standing 'boys club' that continues to drive amazing female airmen out of the military. Would this be OK if Air Force leadership had an Air Force-wide team-building competition that completely excluded other minority groups?"
When last year's contest ended, Welsh acknowledged on his Facebook page that he had gotten a fair amount of criticism over the competition.
"The only emails I'm getting are ripping me apart about mustaches," he said.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
