Why does the military shave recruits heads?

My friend's son served, my father served, the head of a heavy fighter household in the SCA as well as a few of his followers (all friends of mine) also served.

I've known several Marines. None of them ever made sexuality themed jokes at the Navy's expense. Called them over-equipped taxis...but never insulted their sexuality.

My grandfather was Navy and served at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyards in WWII where he worked on battle damaged ships.

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Then they weren't Marines!

What a load of crap. Everyone makes fun of the Navy.

 

Don't expect civilians to get this joke

 

Yeah...you go and tell them that. You walk up to my friend's son, the Marine son of a Navy Petty Officer who served on the USS Constellation...you tell him that he wasn't a real Marine. Or my father who had his father and two uncles who served in the Navy during Korea. You tell him that he's not a real Marine. Let's see what that gets you.

Otherwise...let's stick to the original topic of discussion and leave the branch bashing for another thread.

 

You may think think that they're a joke...but the overall scores for the Army/Navy game says something too. A 14-year winning streak and an overall score of 60 victories Navy, 50 Army (7 tied games) speaks volumes.

 

LOL! You resorted to the football game? That's the best you can defend the Navy armed force?

 

No, I can defend the Navy by using the fact that the Navy was a major reason that we won the war with Japan. To the point where we only had one carrier and its battlegroup against the entirety of the Japanese fleet and still held on until we could rebuild reinforcements. The fact that in Korea and Vietnam, Naval and Air Force (the other "joke" branch of the service) aircraft were key in many battles. The fact that it was the Naval and Air Force aircraft that pounded Iraq to the point where when it was time to put boots on the ground...the ground war (Operation Desert Saber) was over in about a week.

And yes I can use football. Football is about tactics as well as physical prowess. Those men on the gridiron became Army, Navy Officers. Officers who were dealing with the tactics of winning battles with the goal to win wars. 60 tactical victories Navy, 50 Army. Again...speaks volumes.

Oh...here's an interesting point. Marine Corps Officers more often than not come from the US Naval Academy. Do you include them in your broad brush stroke of "Navy are fairies"?

 

Marines are a branch of the Navy. When making Navy jokes, of course we include them. But everytime we do, the marines always say "We're not Navy, we're Marines". Got to distance themselves

 

So...that's the only point you'll address? Yeah...we're done here. Good day.

 

Your other point was football, and World War 2 which was over 70 years ago.

Sailors know they will be the tail end of gay jokes when they joined the Navy to become seamen (LOL).

How long did you serve our country in the Navy for?

 

if that was the case then female recruits would get shorn as well

 

it is thought by many that there are considerably more female gays in their branches of the services - many other male gays come out nowadays along with support groups:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBT_military_and_veteran_organizations

 

As they should. Nothing wrong with being gay

 

Ok, so now we have the Democratic hate-on-the-military thread.

At least it is a break from the hate-on-Christians and hate-one-white-people new threads by Democrats.

 

there are likely more Dems in the military than any other group

but what we really need is a break from all the hate-on-Democrats, hate-on-liberals, hate-on-Muslims, hate-on-minorities, hate-on-peacemakers, and hate-on-feminists threads that fill up this forum

 

That's false
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/t...ilitary-2-to-1-over-democrats/article/2578367
At least 2 Republicans to every Democrat. Each study shows more and more Republicans per Democrat since the 80's.
https://www.quora.com/Are-most-military-people-Republican-or-Democrat

I think where you may be correct is that it's increasingly less and less conservative. I rarely ever meet liberal soldiers (I can only speak for Army and the National Guard) but I'm running into less conservatives.

Romney dominated Obama by over 40% of the military
-66% voted Romney while only 26% voted Obama

http://www.newsmax.com/US/obama-romney-military-vote/2012/10/08/id/459090/

 

You must be old as ****.

 

Perhaps, perhaps not. "Old as ****" is a subjective value. To those younger than I am, yes I'm old as ****. To those older than I, I'm just a stripling.

Age comes to us all and some day those younger than you will refer to you as "old as ****".

 

I'm 27 years old and have been playing Bridge since I was 16. I obviously ain't worried about getting old. I just find it odd that you aren't hip with the times about how everyone bags on the Navy for being gay.

 

Sound like a Nam vet?

 

Get a grip. Get people from the various branches of the military together and they will rib each other, except when the civilian branch of the military is in the room then everyone gangs up on them. Sometimes it even gets a little physical. Put a bunch of alpha males together and there is going to be competition, that's the way the real world is.

And frankly, that's the kind of people you want at the tip of the spear. People that can't take getting called names need not apply and don't belong.

 

After the BCT portion of OSUT, we got a 36 hour pass. Went to (I think?) Hooters in Columbus GA, or some wing place. There we ran into these 3 marines who had been in the service for a while, and we hadn't even started infantry school. Only took 30 minutes before all of us were in a brawl. It was awesome.

 

The shaved head is part of the right of passage from civilian into military life. Uniformity and hygiene are other reasons to shave heads. We all expected it and we joked about it. The barber might ask, "How do you want it?" The trainee might reply, Oh a little off the sides would be fine, and the first pass with the shaver went right down the middle of the head front to back cut almost to the skin. Big joke. We had to get a haircut every Monday whether we needed it or not. They weren't free either. You paid the barber. After a while anyone with long hair looked sloppy and "civilian". At the time being a civilian was looked down upon. We'd say, Scuzzy Civilian...

 

Only question the barber asked us was "got any moles I need to know about?"

 

Another reason is it kinda looks intimidating. Also you won't get your hair caught on to anything in the field.