First Lt. Sukhbir Toor at a Marine Corps training facility in Twentynine Palms, Calif., on Friday.Credit...Mark Abramson for The New York Times
New York Times: The Marines Reluctantly Let a Sikh Officer Wear a Turban. He Says It’s Not Enough.
While other armed services allow some religion-based exceptions to dress standards without problems, the Marines insist that even small deviations can threaten the force’s effectiveness.
Almost every morning for five years, First Lt. Sukhbir Toor has pulled on the uniform of the United States Marine Corps. On Thursday, he also got to put on the turban of a faithful Sikh.
It was a first for the Marine Corps, which almost never allows deviations from its hallowed image, and it was a long-awaited chance for the officer to combine two of the things he holds most dear.
“I finally don’t have to pick which life I want to commit to, my faith or my country,” Lieutenant Toor, 26, said in an interview. “I can be who I am and honor both sides.”
His case is the latest in a long-running conflict between two fundamental values in the United States military: the tradition of discipline and uniformity, and the constitutional liberties the armed forces were created to defend.
While Sikh troops in Britain, Australia and Canada have long worn turbans in uniform, and scores of Sikhs do so now in other branches of the military, Lieutenant Toor’s turban is the first in the 246-year history of the Marine Corps. For generations, the Corps has fought any change to its strict appearance standards, saying that uniformity was as essential to a fighting force as well-oiled rifles.
The Marine Corps has made the allowance only to a point. Lieutenant Toor can wear a turban in daily dress at normal duty stations, but he cannot do so while deployed to a conflict zone, or when in dress uniform in a ceremonial unit, where the public could see it.
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WNU Editor: As I always enjoy saying. This is not your grandfather's military.
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