Makes you proud to be British.

Fly right, Lt Ball.

And a cup of tea on me...

one in the eye for the sceptics! yay! that'll teach them for dumping our tea in the harbour!!

this is more like the kind of news we expect on a friday, i was getting quite worried that so many articles on the Reg today were serious, i thought maybe it was really thursday.

now, where's our friday afternoon Playmobile Porn?

I've had the privilege to work with some of the Canadian RAF and the Queen's RAF, and tis true they do get to sport far more magnificent stash's than we do. The USAF requires the edges of our mustaches not to extend beyond the corner of the lips, and cannot hang below said point. So unless you've got a yap like Jagger's, an American soldier has to make do with a tiny diminutive lip ferret.

Luckily for all, in the US military it's becoming less and less fashionable to sport the stash. We always have those diehard twits that won't let go though.

To the fellow who fought for his stash: Three Cheers for sticking to the Queen's rule, and for supporting extremely bad taste on your face! :)

Icon because I know they're coming to trim my sideburns.

Has some Balls.

//coat please

And nice one for the US general for not kicking him out the squadron after having his rank and level of power questioned by a Brit.

Just adding "tache growing" to my list of sports to send to Sir Seb for inclusion in 2012 Olympiad, we have a gold medal certainty and he's an amateur to boot.

This is exactly the type of story that makes reading El Reg on Fridays worthwhile.

I am going to pre-empt the "IT angle" crowd and say this:

There is no need for an IT angle when Her Madge's boys are trumping the septics with their superior facial hair. Let's have more stories about officers from our Queen's armed forces demonstrating their beards, 'taches and mutton choppers to johnny bloody foreigner.

That's SEPTICS not sCeptics. Doesn't really work if you get it wrong.

Generations of RAF flyboys salute you! Any chance you can buzz the tower on a fly-by as well, spilling this septic tank's coffee in the process?

Excellent story for a Friday Avo.

<harrumph>

Says it all I think....

Not only that Flt Lt Ball gets to keep his 'tache, but the concept of putting British pilots into USAF planes must surely be to reduce British forces casualties on the ground.

'Fly right Lt Ball'.

Using normal printer spelling makes this light ball in the same way as 'Lt Cyan' etc.

How dare you insult our flyboys. I'm sure his equipment is perfectly heavy.

The air force didn't allow the bigger moustaches that they were so fond of.

Tash? Tosh. Try 'tache.

So that they get a good seal on their face mask.

Far too many companies/organisations have tried to wage war on face hair. Never understood why so many men wanted to forgo the joys of facial topiary in favour of baby soft cheeks.

Can't believe no one has gone for a Hairier Jump Jet comment and am not sure I should even attempt to link Paris and Beards in polite company.

There might be some "friendly" fire with your name on it...

I also hope he insisted they pronounce his rank correctly!

You think the armed forces need a reason for ridiculously stringent regulations concerning the minutia of servicemen's lives?

I believe the facial hair issue is to do with the snug fit of the oxygen mask, more fuzz equals greater chance of asphyxiation. Lucky for us the jolly Brit fly boys don’t need that overrated oxygen stuff to maintain air superiority!

without a Playmobil reconstruction.

Get em told !! Tally-ho ! !

now the next item on Lt Ball's list should be:

" Tower, this is Ghostrider requesting fly by "

hehehehe

/ now where's my biggles cap ??

Just in case our UK cousins didn't know;

These days in the US only two types of men wear that kind of stash;

Cops and gay porn actors.

You could also add wannabe cowboys, but most of them fall into the second group.

My apologies if there are still any actual cowboys out there sporting a bad-ass handlebar (my grandpa was one), but real cowboys are about as common as honest politicians these days.

Just doing my part to sponsor trans-Atlantic cultural understanding.

Cheers

Joe

So he bristled with indignation did he?

Mine's the hair shirt...

"Does anyone know the actual reason for the strict regulation of mustache size for fighter pilots?"

I would expect it would be similar to the rules for firefighters: to ensure a tight seal between the face and the breathing equipment. Boring details though.

I prefer the reason that Naval Officers cannot grow moustaches, and are limited in their choice to full beards, substantial porky choppers or clean shaven faces. Apparently it has to do with Queen Victoria being so distraught by the loss of her moustachioed husband that she banned the officers of her Navy from sporting similar facial attire.

I feel the urge to stand to attention, wave a Union Flag and fire some cannons at those pesky frenchies.

And who killed the most British forces in Gulf War 1?

a) Iraq

b) USA

Yes, the answer is "b".

According to Richard Marcinko's autobiography, SEALs can't have moustaches because of the face mask.

I don't know how much difference it makes in a high altitude environment because I can see how for SEALs, there would be water coming in which would either make you clear the mask (making for bubbles which defeats the object of having a rebreather) or impaired vision.

Do we have anyone with high altitude experience with imperfect air masks?

Having never met a real RAF pilot i'd assumed that growing a tache was compulsory to the job? Much like if you're in the army you have to shave your head.

Now that this story has told me that it's optional i feel that you've just destroyed my romantic notions of our boys in the air. Never again will i listen to 'take my breath away' with the same pride and admiration.

Apparently we lost 12 pilots in GW1. 8 of those were to US 'friendly' fire.

I thought about the seal idea, but I kinda figured they might make them be completely clean shaven for a reason like that. Or at the least, his CO would've been like "erm, while it is impressive, the US standard issue gear can't accommodate your moustache, and you'll die" or some such reasoning.

@Neil - The military *always* has a reason for doing what they do... it's just rarely a *good* reason.

@Geof - ROFL

Donny R was always big on taking personal responsibility for those under his command. Look at how he resigned on principle at the appalling behaviour of interrogators at Abu Ghraib!

Oh, wait...

The USAF rule about moustaches is just another skirmish in the war against deviancy, including, but not limited to, hippies, dope smokers, bearded hippies, Godless liberals, non-believers, etc.

A significant fraction of the US population tries its very best to resist time's relentless thrusting of them into the future. Thus, you see aged, retired engineers still sporting an 1960-vintage buzzcut as a way of saying "I repudiate the future."

Another example comprises the young Texas matrons who run around wearing pastel headbands and Big Hair, for all the world as though fashion had stopped in its tracks in 1970.

I think the underlying cause is a bad case of future shock, as described lo those many years ago by Alvin Toffler.

Paris, because there's a gal who happily embraces the future -- and everyone in it.

A little humour there, from / for RAF 1 Squadron Linemen and others?.

They are humourists and love their jobs. Their humour is QuITe specialised and rather Pythonesque at times.

Here are some more Linemen having fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leacw8H8Lrk

Still, flying Tonkas and sporting a tache, eh? -bon skillage!

Oh! Is that the time? -I *must-dash*.

"Brief on shun is better than QR"

call that a handlebar moustache? i've seen bigger than that on a prepubescent aussie cricketer. pah! - jimmy edwards must be spinning in his grave!