In a historic legal win for religious freedom in the military, a member of the Sikh community graduated from Marine Corps recruit training while wearing articles of faith intrinsic to the South Asian religion.
(RNS) Sikhs who serve in the Marine Corps can keep their beards and unshorn hair while on duty but are forbidden from doing so during combat deployment and in the course of boot camp.
Members of the Sikh religion asking for Marine Corps accommodations for long hair and turbans have gained new allies, including a former secretary of the Army.
Three Sikh recruits, working to join the US Marine Corps, fought for an emergency appeal in District of Columbia's federal court to get an immediate exemption to the Corps' boot camp rule of cutting their hair and shaving their beards.