Posted on Apr 5, 2016
Sikh Army captain allowed to wear beard, turban in uniform
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i saw this on facebook the other day and saw,besides the tons of racist remarks, people bitching and complaining about this officer keeping his beard and turban. I don't understand people who like to preach about religious freedom and then get mad when it doesn't include them or their religion. what are your thoughts?
Sikh Army captain allowed to wear beard, turban in uniform
Posted from cnn.com
Officer
Religion
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 21
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The only problem I can see with this is if he has to do CBR training, then it would be a problem trying to have a good seal with your mask. Other than that it is religious freedom.
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PO3 Steven Sherrill
CPT Pedro Meza - It figures that a politician 3,000 miles away couldn't understand.
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CPT Pedro Meza
PO2 Edward Shelton - We need to bring training to real life facts tied to our current conflicts. Dumb that leaders forgot the old saying "When in Rome do like the Romans"
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CPT Pedro Meza
PO3 Steven Sherrill - it figure that leaders 3,000 miles away can not think either specially when the intel is telling them. There was a lot of leadership failure, which bring me to the book "Why we lost"
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PFC Alexander Oliveira
if I were him id shave for the CBRN training then just grow it out again. but i don't think the beard i have on my face means to me as much as his does to him.
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The only way I see this is that there are some standards which some may feel like is unfair treatment. If the beard and turban does not interfere with the mission and image in any way. Why be mad bro?
It can be argued that other religions have more on their wear as opposed to Christianity which is the dominant religion in the US military. I was Muslim during the time that I have served. Our day of worship is on Fridays during the daytime as opposed to Christians which were on Sunday. My leadership was nice enough to accommodate my religious requirements as long as it did not adversely affect the mission. I was placed on the evening shift and felt this was fair.
It can be argued that other religions have more on their wear as opposed to Christianity which is the dominant religion in the US military. I was Muslim during the time that I have served. Our day of worship is on Fridays during the daytime as opposed to Christians which were on Sunday. My leadership was nice enough to accommodate my religious requirements as long as it did not adversely affect the mission. I was placed on the evening shift and felt this was fair.
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CPT Pedro Meza
Just to point out that both in Afghanistan and Iraq the beard was part of the uniform, for those in SF and Spec Ops and also for Air Force OSI, our bearded uniforms made it easier for us to operate out side the wire. Mr. Rumsfeld was opposed to the beard.
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SrA Edward Vong
CPT Pedro Meza
I have always wondered about this. The beard was meant so that we were able to blend in with the local population. However if you will be wearing uniforms anyway, how does one blend in? Does SF and Spec Ops wear the local garb while operating?
I have always wondered about this. The beard was meant so that we were able to blend in with the local population. However if you will be wearing uniforms anyway, how does one blend in? Does SF and Spec Ops wear the local garb while operating?
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CPT Pedro Meza
SrA Edward Vong - We wore civilian attire, and also the regular uniform minus patches and names tags. For the most part villagers respected the beard and care less about the uniform. The beard is the uniform.
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Maj Gail Lofdahl
Agreed. He looks absolutely sharp to me. And the Brit military has allowed Sikhs to wear the turban and beard for years. (Sikh's hair is traditionally not cut, but is wrapped up in the turban, BTW.)
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