I think a simple "nope" ought to suffice with this one. Plenty of other religious groups have distinctive "requirements" for their faiths, but no one is allowed to violate military grooming standards for any reason. If you want to serve in the US military, you follow US military rules.
That said, the Sikh troops I've worked with looked badass with turbans and beards...but they're not US servicemen, so they can follow the rules of their military.
http://www.military.com/news/article/sikhs-want-dod-turban-hair-bans-lifted.html?col=1186032320397
A Sikh civil rights and advocacy group is asking the Pentagon to drop its requirement that Sikh men doff their turbans and cut their beards and hair in order to serve in the military.
The Sikh Coalition is taking on the cause of two commissioned officers who are now in their last year of medical and dental school and slated to enter the Army's Officers' Leadership Basic Course in July.
Capt. Kamaljeet S. Kalsi and 2nd Lt. Tejdeep S. Rattan, the organization says, were told by recruiters they would be able to serve with their articles of faith -- the turban and uncut hair requirements of male Sikhs. Since the men accepted their commissions, the group says, they have continued to maintain their articles of faith throughout their schooling.
In at least two letters to Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- one dated Jan. 26 and the other April 14, the Coalition says the men have now been told they must give up those religious-mandated practices if they are to serve in the Army. The policy undermines the values of equality, justice, liberty and religious freedoms undermined in the Constitution, the group argues in its letters to Gates.
The most recent correspondence is a "sign-on" letter that already has garnered the support of dozens of other organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the American Civil Liberties Union, according to the Sikh Coalition's Web site, www.sikhcoalition.org.
"For centuries, Sikh soldiers and officers have served in armies across the globe, fought bravely in wars, and have achieved the highest levels of military distinction," the groups says in the letter. Kalsi is a fourth-generation soldier whose family members before him served in the Indian and U.S. militaries.
Kalsi was recruited in 2001 during his first year at Touro University School of Osteopathic Medicine in California, and Rattan was recruited in 2006 while in his last year of dental school at New York University, the group states.
Both men learned only in December 2008 that their religious requirements for turbans and uncut hair and beards would not be acceptable.
Sikhs were permitted to wear turbans and uncut hair until the policy was changed during the Reagan administration, but even then exceptions were made, according to the group.
The reason generally given for barring beards is that a bearded Soldier would not get an air-tight fit in the event he needed to don a gas mask.
Critics of that argument point out that Indian soldiers, as well as Sikh soldiers in the British and Canadian armed forces, have no problems securing gas masks.
(Of course, I'm a hypocrite--my last boss was a Sikh woman, and when someone told her to take off her nose ring to maintain a professional appearance when possibly covered by the media, she said "Nope. You hired me like this, and there's no rule prohibiting it, just your opinion." It's a different organization and a different scenario, though...we don't have a big book of specific grooming standards.)
That said, the Sikh troops I've worked with looked badass with turbans and beards...but they're not US servicemen, so they can follow the rules of their military.
http://www.military.com/news/article/sikhs-want-dod-turban-hair-bans-lifted.html?col=1186032320397
A Sikh civil rights and advocacy group is asking the Pentagon to drop its requirement that Sikh men doff their turbans and cut their beards and hair in order to serve in the military.
The Sikh Coalition is taking on the cause of two commissioned officers who are now in their last year of medical and dental school and slated to enter the Army's Officers' Leadership Basic Course in July.
Capt. Kamaljeet S. Kalsi and 2nd Lt. Tejdeep S. Rattan, the organization says, were told by recruiters they would be able to serve with their articles of faith -- the turban and uncut hair requirements of male Sikhs. Since the men accepted their commissions, the group says, they have continued to maintain their articles of faith throughout their schooling.
In at least two letters to Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- one dated Jan. 26 and the other April 14, the Coalition says the men have now been told they must give up those religious-mandated practices if they are to serve in the Army. The policy undermines the values of equality, justice, liberty and religious freedoms undermined in the Constitution, the group argues in its letters to Gates.
The most recent correspondence is a "sign-on" letter that already has garnered the support of dozens of other organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the American Civil Liberties Union, according to the Sikh Coalition's Web site, www.sikhcoalition.org.
"For centuries, Sikh soldiers and officers have served in armies across the globe, fought bravely in wars, and have achieved the highest levels of military distinction," the groups says in the letter. Kalsi is a fourth-generation soldier whose family members before him served in the Indian and U.S. militaries.
Kalsi was recruited in 2001 during his first year at Touro University School of Osteopathic Medicine in California, and Rattan was recruited in 2006 while in his last year of dental school at New York University, the group states.
Both men learned only in December 2008 that their religious requirements for turbans and uncut hair and beards would not be acceptable.
Sikhs were permitted to wear turbans and uncut hair until the policy was changed during the Reagan administration, but even then exceptions were made, according to the group.
The reason generally given for barring beards is that a bearded Soldier would not get an air-tight fit in the event he needed to don a gas mask.
Critics of that argument point out that Indian soldiers, as well as Sikh soldiers in the British and Canadian armed forces, have no problems securing gas masks.
(Of course, I'm a hypocrite--my last boss was a Sikh woman, and when someone told her to take off her nose ring to maintain a professional appearance when possibly covered by the media, she said "Nope. You hired me like this, and there's no rule prohibiting it, just your opinion." It's a different organization and a different scenario, though...we don't have a big book of specific grooming standards.)
irate2:'s