Air Force security troop wins right to wear braid as symbol of indigenous heritage

MSN ^ | 11/10/23 | Patti Nieberg

[DeathBeforeDishonor1]

Connor Crawn celebrated receiving a religious accomodation to wear his hair in a distinctive braid by making a Tik Tok video. He was, he believed, the first Native American in the U.S. military to win the right to wear his hair in a long braid as a symbol of his indigenous heritage and faith.

“Not a lot of people understand or know what hair length or having long hair means in a lot of different native cultures,” Crawn said in the video which had nearly 24,000 views and over 2,000 comments. “This is a huge deal, because as far as I know, within modern United States military history, I'm the first Native American to be approved a religious accommodation request.”

Crawn is Kanien'kehà:ka, or the Mohawk Nation, one of the five nations of the Iroquois, whose origins trace to an area in and around present-day upstate New York and Montreal, Canada. Since he announced the approval of his religious accomodation, he said, dozens of Native men in the Air Force, Army and Marines to reach out to him for mentorship, including through his Tik Tok video.

[ansel12]

That was ignorant.

[Redmen4ever]

There’s a balancing of the importance of self and the importance of country in the armies of democracies. We don’t goose-step. We march at a natural gait. We aren’t fanatics, looking to die for the country. We are calculating, willing to die, but realizing how important each one of us is. And, we invest a lot in med evac and in search and rescue and stuff like that. Fewer and fewer of us die from wounds on the battlefield, and - conversely - more and more of us come back from war badly hurt.

[canuck_conservative]

are you saying the US Military is so fragile that it can’t survive one Native guy wearing a ponytail?

[Ikeon]

youve never been in the military have you. you have no clue what it takes to get someone combat ready, what it takes for a platoon to be combat ready. what it takes for a military to be combat ready.

heres a clue.

we aint waiting on wah-hoo McDaniel to get his bun right to duck and cover and shoot back. wah hoo can just stand there fixing his pony tail and get his ass shot.

long hair is a liability.

suppose that man bun gets loose around rotating equipment? Wah-hoo deserves to be scalped, as does the entire judicial committee that allowed this future darwin award recepient to be in their military.

otoh canuck/ idiot, you always have been faster than any knowledge or common sense sent your way. you're a down right "tag" never caught champion!.

[canuck_conservative]

he works security FFS

you’re getting worked up over nothing

do you hate Natives?

[rovenstinez]

So the women will want to wear their hijab, and the Jews their kippa, and those with darker tone in their epidermis will want to wear multi colored scarfs..the bring in the Amish with their overalls..SO IT IS NO LONGER UNI....FORM.

[Varsity Flight]

Accommodate them in a separate Division, along with all the rest of the coming labels to be called “religious” accomodations.

[military cop]

Canuck trying to get that lower body workout in by jumping to conclusions.

He said “part of the problem”, Canuck. It’s a symptom not the disease.

We were winning when I left.

RLTW.

[TalBlack]

Ive been hearing “get a grip “America (or the Air Force)will survive this over a million “little” things for the last sixty years. Minimizing attacks on Order is how we got drag queens in libraries. Americans of 1963 wouldn’t even recognize their country now. A million crumbs adds up to one hell of a mountain after a while. The mission is more important than this dumb ass and his hair.

[mewzilla]

Survive what?

In case it’s escaped your notice the US is no longer a republic.

It’s Deep State’s military, not America’s.

[Varsity Flight]

Even Elvis shaved his head.

[EEGator]

You’re not an American.
You’re not a man.
You’re not a Veteran.
Your opinion is meaningless.

[DaBroasta]

Things sure have changed—when I enlisted in the early 70s and took issue with the Army regulation haircut, to paraphrase my platoon sergeant's retort, “the Army doesn't change to please you, you change to please the Army.” That remained a constant theme through to my eventual retirement from the Air Force in 2000—when it came to regulations it was never about individual.

[Yo-Yo]

He is from the Mohawk Nation. How come he is not in a mohawk cut with war paint like the Filthy Thirteen 101'st AB Demolition Section?

Oddly enough, when I was in the Air Force, the Mohawk was the only haircut specifically prohibited in the regulations by name.

[canuck_conservative]

if you want a police-state culture, move to Russia, China or North Korea

sounds like you’d like it there better

[jz638]

It never ceases to amaze me how people fixate on the dumbness and not the important parts as if the only reason to have a military is so generals have something to inspect on a parade grounds. Most of the rules for grooming standards are stupid, as evidenced by how quickly they are abandoned by special operators the moment they can get away with it.

This airman cut his hair for basic, went through proper channels for an exemption, and is, from all appearances, able to do the job of a security forces airman competently. If a female can have long hair and accomplish the mission, so can a male. Keep it neat and clean and don’t be a disruption.

[virgil]

Somebody could grab hold of that and give him a good snap.

[Alas Babylon!]

No.

Rubbed off (ever get an “Indian haircut”?), except for the hair stripe.

[T.B. Yoits]

Once they let women in with long hair, why not men?

The next thing is to lower the fitness standards for men to match the already low standards for women... "Integrity" or something like that.

[canuck_conservative]

So the women will want to wear their hijab, and the Jews their kippa, and those with darker tone in their epidermis will want to wear multi colored scarfs..the bring in the Amish with their overalls..

no

when you can show that your ancestors lived in North America for hundreds/thousands of years before the United States was even created, you'll get a special exemption too

that doesn't apply in any of your examples