Pete that makes sense, I'm clean shaven and know that the mask works v CS gas (or whatever it was) at least.
We had a guy who said his religion required him to have a beard join us just B4 I left.
He made a bit of a fuss about being made to shave ( because of having to wear a mask) Our leadership had taken advice from both Israeli and the Kuwait armed forces, on how to be inclusive to religious beliefs, they both said that they make people shave them off.
I visited the site of the first gas attacks in WW1 (in Belgium).
There is a fantastic monument to some Canadian troops, they had no gas masks and stood up on the top of their trenches, waist high in gas but keeping their faces above the gas and continued to fire rifles on the advancing enemy whilst exposed to enemy fire.
Belgium is an underrated country but has a lot of fantastic WW1 and WW2 history which the locals respect.
My favourite fact about Belgium though is the fact that it carried on with no government whilst I was there.
'
On 1 June 2011, Belgium matched the record for time taken to form a new democratic government after an election, at 353 days, held until then by
Cambodia in 2003–2004.
[1] On 11 October 2011, the final
agreement for institutional reform was presented to the media. A government coalition was named on 5 December 2011 and sworn in after a total of 541 days of negotiations and formation on 6 December 2011,
[2] and 589 days without an elected government
[3