Captain Simratpal Singh

Sarika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 1

In a landmark decision, decorated Sikh American soldier Captain Simratpal Singh has been allowed to maintain his articles of faith while serving in the US army. He becomes the fourth Sikh to have been granted the opportunity to serve without removing unshorn hair and turban since a restrictive ban was implemented in 1981.Captain Simratpal Singh had joined the United States Military Academy at West Point 10 years ago and had to cut his hair and shave his beard to join the US army. After successfully completing the Army Ranger School, a Bronze Star tour in Afghanistan, and receiving numerous other military accolades, he filed a religious accommodation request on October 21, 2015.Throughout this process, the Department of Defence made attempts to delay and prohibit his accommodation, including an attempt to subject Capt Singh to discriminating testing, which the court denied.Singh said that through all these years he spent serving the nation, one thing he regretted was compromising his religion in order to serve his country.On Tuesday, another three Sikh American soldiers had filed a lawsuit in a US federal court against the Department of Defence. Specialist Kanwar Singh, Specialist Harpal Singh and Private Arjan Singh Ghotra had sought the right to serve their country without being forced to compromise their religion in the process.

They got religious accommodation too

• Major Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi: An emergency medicine doctor, he was granted a historic religious accommodation by the US army in October 2009 to maintain his religiously-mandated turban and beard.
• Major Tejdeep Singh Rattan: A dentist, he was allowed to maintain his Sikh turban and beard in December 2009. He was the first turbaned Sikh officer to complete basic training in over two decades.
• Specialist Simran Preet Singh Lamba: Was granted religious accommodation in September 2010