Army rules deter Sikhs from joining

Sacramento Bee ^ | February 27, 2004 | Christina Jewett

[Cultural Jihad]

Bikram Singh, center, laughs with friends at Ohlone College in Fremont, where he is studying computer science. Singh, who maintains a Web site on Sikh culture, declined to join the Army when he learned he would have to cut his hair and shave, contrary to his religion.

[DannyTN]

Well I'm not sure how I feel about Sikh's in the army. But I think the army should adopt eating pork as a requirement. We wouldn't have any muslims infiltrating our ranks and stabbing us in the back.

Of course I guess that would upset our Jewish friends. Maybe we can make an exception for them.

[anniegetyourgun]

Perhaps they could join incognito. But then, that would make them hide-n-Sikh.

[steplock]

Samoans have special dispensations in the Marine Corps for height/weight standards (Samoans are BIG as a race and are ferocious warriors!). The Sikhs have been noted as heroic and brave warriors and would probably be assets to our military. Special dispensation should be made for them also.

It's a shame our leftist here have declared any form of discrimination to be un-PC - the Sikhs fight best as a coherent unit rather than dispersed among different units.

Discrimination isn't always negative - the USMC discriminates against girly-men wimpy communists every day.

[Joe 6-pack]

I think they would bristle at the act of shaving...it might be a bit too dis-turban.

[shawv]

I think that joke made me sikh to my stomach.....

[Cultural Jihad]

Seems that Sikhs could be recruited by the special forces, since Rumsfeld's new directives have given them greater flexibility.

[JohnnyZ]

Back in the day, they could have formed a unit just for Sikhs. I'm not sure that would fly these days.

[anniegetyourgun]

Everybody's gotta get into the act.....

[Ramius]

The Sikhs would be a valuable fighting force, but the reality is: You cannot wear a gas mask with a beard.

Yes, there is a morale/cleanliness and uniformity enforcement component to clean shaving... but overriding all that is the practical component. Gas masks.

Anybody with beard in a chem/bio environment is a dead man.

[LibKill]

A gas mask will not seal over a beard. It will let the poison in. Also OBAs, Oxygen Breathing Apparatus, (air for damage-control firefighters) won't work with a beard.

Back in the '80s the Navy decided beards were out. I was a Marine in a Marine Detachment at that time. You never heard such bitching and moaning in your life!

Some Sailors retired, some took discharge.

The Navy is still in place and still operating.

I'm sorry that this Sikh can't join up, but I'd be a damn sight sorrier if he died from poison gas because he wouldn't shave.

[Ramius]

You also can't get Kevlar on over a turban.

[Ramius]

I was a Coastie when the no-beards rule came down.

Some of us sent our beards in envelopes to the Commandant. But we shaved 'em.

[Cultural Jihad]

That was just two-thirds of a pun: P.U.

;-)

[Cultural Jihad]

Similarly, there was a case at a civilian oil refinery, wherein a Sikh lost his job for refusing to shave his beard, thereby making a safety-mandated gas mask policy useless for him.

[LibKill]

I was a Coastie when the no-beards rule came down.

Some of us sent our beards in envelopes to the Commandant. But we shaved 'em.

You have my gratitude. Guard duty is harsh and boring, but absolutely imperitive.

I did a few years in the USMC, cold war.

The only Marine officer I ever saw with a beard was an black American who obviously had a shaving chit because of 'pseudofolicularitis' (shaving bumps). He was giving some private a good toasting for not being alert on duty, and well deserved. The private in this question was on guard around our armory. He failed to salute the Lt. This indicates that the private was asleep on his feet or was stupid.

Anyway, you have to shave to use a gas-mask or OBA. This is very unfair to those who suffer from pseudofolicularitis. War is also unfair and does not care about anyone's 'rights'.

In the middle '80s I was stationed with a black Marine who paid out of his own pocket to have his facial hair removed by electrolysis. He couldn't shave, and he didn't want to leave the Corps. (No, the Corps wouldn't pay for that back then.)

[LibKill]

Similarly, there was a case at a civilian oil refinery, wherein a Sikh lost his job for refusing to shave his beard, thereby making a safety-mandated gas mask policy useless for him.

Awe ----!

That's a lot tougher. Civillians have all kinds of rights, real or imagined.

[Tax-chick]

That is a total bummer ... one of the greatest warrior cultures in history (not to mention speaking those gibberish languages we need!) and they can't be in the army because of gas masks! Darned technology ...

[Ramius]

Thanks, and you have my gratitude.

The ship I was on worked with the Marines from time to time. There was a recon platoon that we carried somewhere on an exercise... and they weren't like anything I'd ever seen before. Hard core. :-) I remember being grateful that they were on *our* side.