A farewell to Mustache March
General Robin Olds and his bulletproof mustache
So this whole month I’ve been unenthusiastically swept up into “Mustache March,” due to my boyfriend’s lab’s participation. According to Air Force legend:
Mustache March originated during the Vietnam War when a fighter pilot named Robin Olds grew what he called a “bulletproof mustache.” At the time mustaches weren’t allowed to be sported in the military, but Olds, who was far from home on a military base in ‘Nam, thought the stache defined his individuality, so he kept it. This occurred in the month of March 1965.
Once Olds returned home in April, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. McConnell, who wasn’t fond of Olds’s defiance, greeted him. McConnell walked up to him, stuck a finger under his nose and ordered, “Take it off.” Olds replied, “Yes, sir.”
Thus the roots of Mustache March were born. Air Force pilots now devote one month of defiance of the Air Force facial hair regulations as a way of good-natured protest, and pay to tribute to General Robin Olds.
The male scientists’ plan was a competition to grow the biggest and best facial hair in one month, but after a while most of their girlfriends and wives said “Ha ha ha that was funny but now it is time to get rid of that monstrosity.” The head of the lab got rid of his because his young daughters would no longer kiss him goodnight.
My boyfriend has been the only one in his lab still mustached for a couple weeks or so now and so is kind of automatically the winner at this point, but he has decided to hold out for the entire month for pride’s sake.
But today is the final day! I held out! I didn’t complain that much! I only started laughing at inappropriately intimate moments like three or four times! And tomorrow is my reward: the mustache comes off.
And now a celebration of the fact that it will be at least another year, if not more, before I am asked if I want a mustache ride: the top ten mustaches I am totally OK with. What mustaches do you view as acceptable?