Air Force leaders are directing unit commanders to conduct four “standards and readiness reviews” of their troops per year starting March 31, as part of a recent push for new standards and stricter enforcement.
A memo from Lt. Gen. Scott L. Pleus, director of staff at Headquarters Air Force, directing the quarterly reviews first leaked on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page on Feb. 4. A service spokesperson confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine that the memo is authentic and went out to all the major commands on Jan. 30.
In the memo, Pleus directed that one of the four reviews per year be done in full service dress and one in Occupational Camouflage Pattern (OCP) uniforms. The dress for the other two is up to the unit commander.
During the review, the commander or a representative will evaluate Airmen for “overall readiness as well as professional appearance, conduct, and resilience.” In particular, leaders want to make sure troops are “following dress and personal appearance standards and are adhering to military customs and courtesies.”
Service members with waivers for dress and appearance standards—such as a religious accommodation or medical waiver for not shaving—will need to have all the documentation for their waiver on hand during the review process.
In that regard, the reviews will be similar to the open ranks inspections ordered by Air Combat Command in summer 2024. At the time, commander Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach wrote in a memo that “while the majority of Airmen maintain professional standards, there is a discernible decline in the commitment to, and enforcement of, military standards in the Air Force.”
In January, Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin announced new standards and more rigorous enforcement were coming for the rest of the service. In a video message, he said he wanted to eliminate “selective enforcement” in favor of standards and waivers that “are easy to understand, easy to comply with, and easy to enforce.” During the video, he warned that lax standards could lead to serious consequences while the photo of a burnt-out wreckage of a B-1B bomber that crashed played.
Pleus echoed both leaders’ concerns in his own memo, writing that, “We have observed a recent uptick in the number of preventable incidents, to include fatal accidents, due in no small part to lapses in disciplined execution and enforcement of standards. This must change.”
A spokesperson said the reviews will go down to the squadron level, and commanders will not be required to report back up the chain of command on the results. They will, however, be expected to “document individual discrepancies and ensure corrective action,” according to the memo.
Commanders will have discretion on the corrective action take and on whether the reviews will include the entire unit all at once or be broken up.
“However, unit commanders should minimize reinspecting the same Airman or group of Airmen multiple times in a quarter unless such action is, in the judgment of the commander, a necessary follow-on to an unsatisfactory earlier inspection,” the memo noted.
The first reviews will come two months after the Air Force announced new appearance standards on Jan. 29. Among the changes, Airmen are no longer allowed to wear Duty Identifier Patches, hair cannot touch a male Airman’s ears, Airmen must shave every day if they do not have a medical or religious waiver, and female Airmen must comply with tighter restrictions on nail polish. The service also ordered all service members with a medical shaving waiver to be reassessed at their next periodic health assessment.
The new standards—like ACC’s open ranks inspections last summer—have sparked vigorous debate on social media where Airmen often vent their frustrations.