The Army has revised the grooming standards addressing the impact of grooming on females in this service branch. A special panel made up of soldiers from across the service representing all ranks, units, ages, career fields, age, and races making up the Army met to review proposed grooming and appearance modifications in 2020. Army senior leaders approved the modifications in December 2020  that take effect in late February 24, pending an Army memo to be sent out Sgt. Maj. Brian Sanders, Army G-1, Uniform Policy Branch sergeant major shared.

The panel included psychologists and dermatologists to make changes in standards for females, noting that Soldiers are not Soldiers 24/7 and have roles outside of the Army.

Hairstyle standard changes for females that will be authorized are:

•   No minimum hair length for female Soldiers – a change from the minimum hair length of ¼ inch
• Allow for multiple hairstyles at once – meaning braiding, twisting, or locs can be worn all at once
• Short and long ponytails allowed instead of a bun
• Long Ponytails allowed for Soldiers during physical fitness training and with the Army Combat Uniform (ACU), during tactical training where they are required to wear a helmet; Soldiers will be required to tuck long ponytails into the ACU blouse
• Highlights allowed as long as it presents as a uniform and natural appearance; the colors of purple, blue, pink, green, orange, bright red, fluorescent or neon colors are prohibited

Other grooming changes that will be authorized:

• Option to wear gold, silver, and diamond earrings while Female Soldiers are wearing the ACU
• Solid lip and non-extreme nail colors for female Soldiers
• Clear nail polish for male Soldiers

These changes in approved hairstyles stem from medical considerations as tight hairstyles can lead to conditions of the scalp to include hair loss, and tight buns prevent properly wearing the helmet allowing for full visual fields for females while wearing the gear.  Female soldiers are currently able to wear earrings with service and dress uniforms, and these changes allow for the earrings to be worn with all uniforms. However, pearl earrings are still only authorized with the service and dress uniforms.

Extreme colors such as purple, gold, black, blue, white, fire-engine red, hot pink, yellow, and other neon colors will not be allowed for lip or nail polish colors for female Soldiers in uniform. The addition of the allowance of clear nail polish for male soldiers allows for men working in specialties that are in contact with harsh chemicals to protect the nails.

  The grooming updates will be included in the next update to the AR 670-1, Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia.

On January 25, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order which reversed the previous ban on transgender individuals serving in the United States military. This new order was signed in the presence of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and Vice President Harris.

The Executive Order states that “All Americans who are qualified to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States (“Armed Forces”) should be able to serve” and that gender identity should not prevent someone from serving in the military. Allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military does not negatively impact the DOD’s mission referencing the 2016 Rand Corporation study completed on transgender individuals serving in the Armed Forces to determine the costs and political readiness implications of transgender. The study was completed and provided several recommendations to include that the DOD include openly serving transgender service members to diversify their workforce based on the research that integrations of transgender individuals did not affect foreign military policy.

The order references further support for transgender service members being allowed to serve was demonstrated in 2018 when then Chief of Staff of the army, Chief of Naval Operations, Commandant of the Marine Corps, and Chief of Staff of the Air Force testified to Congress to that there was no morale or unit cohesion problem from those military members who were openly transgender. The executive order further states that “permitting transgender individuals to serve openly in the military was consistent with military readiness and with strength through diversity, such that the transgender service members who could meet the required standards and procedures should be permitted to serve openly.”

It further dictates that the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Homeland Security in respect to the Coast Guard shall prohibit involuntary separations, discharges, and denials of reenlistment based on gender identity, retroactively review records of individuals who were involuntarily separated discharged or denied reenlistment or continuation of service based on gender identity, and to issue guidance to the Secretaries of each military section to correct military records.

Language within the Executive order repeals the previous Presidential Memorandum on this topic. Specifically, it states “The Presidential Memorandum of March 23, 2018 (Military Service by Transgender Individuals), is hereby revoked, and the Presidential Memorandum of August 25, 2018 (Military Service by Transgender Individuals), remains revoked.”

“Combating human trafficking is a responsibility the Defense Department (DoD) takes very seriously,” Anthony M. Kurta, deputy assistant secretary of defense for military personnel policy, said during a recent seminar on Human Trafficking Awareness. “Human trafficking is modern-day slavery. It not only destroys the lives of those victimized, but also destroys countless families and poses a direct threat to the security and well-being of the entire world. Those who engage in human trafficking exploit the weak and the vulnerable and capitalize on those who patronize the sex-trade industry and those involved in forced labor. For those reasons, DoD is committed to continuing its aggressive stance against human trafficking, and will further training its personnel to expand awareness.”

One wouldn’t normally think of the DoD as working to prevent human trafficking, but the signs could be evident around DoD personnel. Some examples are a subcontractor could withhold passports and payments to employees. Some companies make workers pay a large fee to obtain a job on a DoD installation. The three most common forms of trafficking, according to the DoD’s Combating Trafficking in Persons office, are labor trafficking, sex trafficking, and child soldiering.

According to Kurta, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently received a presidential award for the development of the Memex program. It searches the deep web and connects open-source information to identify tracking patterns. U.S. law enforcements, military and intelligence entities are using it to stop human trafficking enterprises and bring traffickers to justice.

“Additionally, our Special Operations Command, partnered with the National Association to Protect Children and the U.S.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations to establish the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative Child Rescue Corps,” Kurta said. “Known as HERO, the group trains wounded, ill and injured service members in high-tech forensic and law enforcement skills to assist federal agents in the fight against online child sexual exploitation. HERO exemplifies the power of public-private partnerships to help combat trafficking in persons,” Kurta said.

The DoD also partners with the Joint Staff and combatant commands. According to Kurta, Joint training exercises are conducted that include trafficking in persons scenarios that will help ensure our forces understand their roles in preventing, recognizing, and reporting trafficking in persons incidents. The DoD will continue to invest in and develop a variety of robust training resources to help educate its total force to combat trafficking in persons. Such training also will include specialized training for DoD law enforcement and acquisition professionals, in addition to toolkits to assist leaders in developing their specialized training.

During the month of January, the DoD recognizes National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Military and DoD civilian personnel must take at least one Combating Trafficking in Persons training course every fiscal year. Kurta quoted from the proclamation declaring January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month: “There is no place in our world to allow modern slavery to persist,” he said. “We will do our part to strive for its total abolition.”

DoD says everyone can do their part in fighting trafficking. Incidents of human trafficking can be reported to the DoD Inspector General hotline at 1-800-424-9098, 703-604-8799 or DSN 664-8799, or at www.dodig.mil/hotline.

The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) included a bipartisan agreement made by the House and Senate members requiring that the Secretary of Defense implement a plan submitted by a commission to rename 10 military bases that are named after Confederate Generals. The 10 bases that will be renamed are Ft. Bragg in North Carolina; Camp Beauregard and Fort Polk in Louisiana; Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia; Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee and Fort Pickett in Virginia, Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Rucker in Alabama. The army bases were named by the War Department during World War I and II and are now getting a name change.

Part of the 2021 NDAA was that a commission is formed to plan the 10 Army bases’ renaming. The NDAA stated that the commission would be composed of eight members, four of which would be appointed by the Secretary of Defense and appointed no later than 45 days after the bill passes. On January 8, 2021, Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller announced the appointment of four people to the commission assigned with the task of renaming these military bases. Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller selected Sean McLean of California, Joshua Whitehouse of New Hampshire, Anne G. Johnston of North Carolina and Earl Matthews of Pennsylvania to the Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America. The other four members will be selected by the House and Senate Armed Services Committees’ ranking members.

The NDAA provides specifics on the meetings and reports required as part of the commission. Per the bill, the commission must hold its first meeting within the first 60 days after the bill becomes the law and must brief the Armed Services Committee on the current plans no later than October 1^st, 2021. The commission has been given three years to complete the plan for the name changes. By October 1, 2022, the commission must brief their plan of the costs associated with the “renaming or removing the names, symbols, displays, monuments, or paraphernalia that commemorate the Confederate States of American or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America” including the procedures for the renaming. For further details about the Commission can be read in Section 377 of the National Defense Authorization Act here in the Senate version of the bill. While H.R. 6395 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 has become a public law as of 01/01/2021, the full public text is not currently available as of this writing.