RNS
ARLINGTON, VA, USA, April 14, 2009: Two Sikh men say they want to report for active duty in July even as they refuse to comply with the Army’s demands to cut their unshorn beards and hair and remove their turbans. “I am willing to lay down my life for America,” said 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, one of the men who filed a complaint, on Tuesday. “In return, I ask only that my country respect my faith, an integral part of who I am. My turban and my beard are not an option — they are an intrinsic part of me.”
Rattan and Capt. Kamaljit Singh Kalsi are members of an Army program that trains medical personnel prior to active duty. Kalsi began the program in 2001 and said until now, his beard and turban haven’t been an issue. Rattan is currently still in training. Lt. Col. Nathan Banks, an Army spokesman, said “the Army sympathizes with them; however, this is a military standard that has been placed on the books, and we have to follow (the) standards.” Banks said turbans and other “conspicuous” religious articles have been prohibited by the Army since 1986, but Sikh soldiers who were enlisted prior to that date were allowed to stay. Two Sikh colonels — one a doctor and the other a dentist — retired within the last two years after serving in the army for 25 years.