8216;We can be Sikhs and soldiers at the same time8217;

Maj. Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi is waging a campaign to revoke strict rules that have blocked hundreds of Sikhs from joining the military

JAMES DAO

The Sikhs of northwestern India have for centuries cherished their rich military history. Wearing long beards and turbans into combat,they have battled the Mughals in Punjab,Afghans near the Khyber Pass and Germans in the bloody trenches of the Somme. But when Maj. Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi,an American Sikh raised in New Jersey,signed up for the US Army,that tradition counted for nothing. Before sending him to officer basic training,the Army told him that he would have to give up the basic symbols of his religion: his beard,knee-length hair and turban.

In good Sikh tradition,he resisted. Armed with petitions and congressional letters,he waged a two-year campaign that in 2009 resulted in the Army granting him a special exception for his unshorn hair,the first such accommodation to a policy established in the 1980s. And so now,as he prepares to leave active duty,Kalsi,who earned a Bronze Star in Afghanistan,is waging a new campaign: to rescind those strict rules that he believes have blocked hundreds of Sikhs from joining the military.

Folks say,If you really want to serve,why dont you cut your beard? said Kalsi,a doctor who is medical director of emergency medical services at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. But asking a person to choose between religion and country,thats not who we are as a nation. Were better than that. We can be Sikhs and soldiers at the same time.

At stake for the military is the uniformity in appearance that it deems necessary for good order and discipline. A neat and well-groomed appearance is fundamental to Army service, said Troy A Rolan,an Army spokesman.

But to Sikh advocates and their supporters in Congress,the policies governing appearance are as discriminatory as racially segregated units were to blacks,combat prohibitions were to women and the dont ask,dont tell policy was to gay men and lesbians.

If they want to serve,we should let them do it, said Democrat Congressman Joseph Crowley,New York,who has been urging the Pentagon to change its rules regarding Sikhs.

Story continues below this ad

Sikh leaders cite an additional reason for their push. In the days after the September 11 attacks,Sikhs were attacked,and at least one was killed,by assailants who confused them with fundamentalist Muslims. Last year,a white supremacist shot to death six Sikhs in their gurudwara,or place of worship,near Milwaukee.

The more Sikhs wear military,police or firefighter uniforms,Kalsi reasoned,the less often Americans will see them as threatening outsiders. When you see a Sikh firefighter save your daughter,youll think,Thats a member of my community, said Kalsi,a 36-year-old

father of two.

The Sikh Coalition,an advocacy group,estimates that about half a million Sikhs live in America. There are about 30 million Sikhs worldwide.