Turbans and beards? Not in my military
- Capt. Kamaljit Singh Kalsi (right), a doctor, and 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a dentist, are appealing to the Army to allow them to continue to wear their beards, long hairÊand turbans, asÊmandated by their Sikh faith, though it would violate Army regulations. Courtesy of Sihk Coalition/Army Times
So let me get this straight: two U.S. Army officers, who happen to be devout Sikhs ( a Hindu-based religion) are now fighting the Army on religious grounds in order to wear head turbans , longer hair and beards while in uniform.
They argue that they shouldn’t be forced to choose between serving their country and abiding by their religion. See the full story here.
The Army’s answer, so far, has been a flat-out “no” and I hope it stays that way. Here’s why: These two soldiers, Capt. Kamaljeet Kalsi, a physician, and 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a dentist, knew the Army had strict uniform requirements when they signed up. Nobody gets special treatment, especially officers who are supposed to set the example for their lower-ranking peers.
The officers s argue that their recruiter(s) told them it was OK to wear turbans and beards while in uniform - yet recruiters aren’t the final authority on that policy. My guess is that their recruiter(s) were so anxious to bring in hard-to-get medical personnel that they overstated the Army’s leniency on uniforms, or maybe they deliberately misled the recruits to get them to sign up.
I also find it interesting that this issue comes up only after that the Army has presumably paid the full cost of their medical training. The officers point out that nobody complained about their religious garb during the several years they spent in medical school.
But now they’re expected to serve on active duty, wearing the uniform of their rank. That includes head gear and a clean-shaven face (moustaches are allowed).
That’s how it should be. I’ve yet to see the military cut anyone slack in wearing a uniform, with the exception of a different shoe after foot surgery or some similar temporary arrangenent,
In my mind, requiring these officers to wear the uniform is not tantamount to cutting them off from their religious beliefs. They can still practice their religion and wear turbans on their own time. As for the beards, well, the military hasn’t allowed beards for the last century or so. These officers must have known that when they chose to volunteered. If wearing a beard was so important to them, they should have investigated that possibility before signing up. I’m sure they noticed that no one else in the Army has a beard.
A lot of us in the military would like to tweak our uniform here and there but the bottom line is we are one team, one fight — and that goes for looking alike too.
Lt. Col. William “Bogus” Russell
OK, this is wrong on so many levels. I got an e-mail from “Lt. Col. William Bill Russell of the US Military (MARINE).” First off, no Marine identifies himself as a Marine in parentheses. That’s just crazy. And where are the quotes around “Bill?”
That’s the minor stuff. Believing that a Marine would confide in some anonymous e-mail recipient is way unbelievable, period.
I bet y’all will find plenty of reasons to pick at this e-mail, so I’ll just show it to you. Here goes:
Hello,
My name is Lt.Col. William Bill Russell, of the US Military (MARINE) here in Ba’qubah in Iraq, and a citizen of the United States of America. Iraq. We are always targets of various attacks insurgents everyday and car bombs. When will this war end? No one can tell and that is why I am contacting you and I hope I can confide in you?
We (Soldiers) managed to move funds belonging to Saddam Hussein’s family in 2003. The total amount is US$25Million in cash, mostly 100 dollar bills, this money has been kept somewhere outside Baghdad for sometime but with the speculated troop withdrawal by President BARRACK OBAMA, we are afraid that the money will be discover. Hence, we want to move this money to you for safe keeping and nvestment purpose pending when our assignment here is over.
You can visit this weblink to read about events that took place :news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm
we are ready to compensate you with good percentage (20%) of the funds, No strings attached, just for you to help us move the money out of Iraq. Iraq is a war zone, so we plan on using Bank to Bank transfer or diplomatic means in shipping the money out as military cargo using diplomatic immunity.
If you are interested, I will send you the full details, my job is to find a good partner that we can trust and assist us to invest the funds into some lucrative investments. Can I trust you? But I can assure you the whole process is simple and we need you to make it as a confidential matter.
I am giving you all the trust and I believe that with the help of God, we will successfully transfer this money out of Iraq. Also I am optimistic of meeting with you soonest to solidify our relationship
Please do not disclose this deal to anybody as to protect my duty with the US Marine; we must keep a low profile at all times. More details as regard the transfer I will get across to you as soon as I hear from you.
I look forward to your reply and co-operation.
Regards,
Lt. Col. William Bill Russell
I won’t insult your intelligence by pointing out all the erroneous errors in this obviously bogus e-mail. I just want to point out how annoyed I am that these foreign swindlers think they can mimic our military – a brand we know and trust – in order to prey on our pocketbooks.
I think I’ll reply to this character and nibble on his bait. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Taking it to the extreme
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe expresses an awful lot of outrage toward the Security and its “Intelligence and Assessment Report on Radical Extremism in the United States.” A good chunk of Inhofe’s anger is directed at what he perceives as an insult to our retuning vets who have served honorably in Iraq and Afghanistan. Click here to read his letter to DHS.
The DHS report suggests that disgruntled vets are prime recruiting targets of radical extremists because of their military skills. Of course extremists would want to recruit our vets. How successful they’ll be remains to be seen.
As a veteran myself, I do not take offense at DHS acknowledging that some disillusioned vets may be vulnerable to the recruiting efforts of radical extremists. Here’s why:
The military is way more than a job. For many, it becomes an identity. It’s a source of income, of stature, of camaraderie. The military is its own distinct culture, one with strong values, altruistic goals and a life-and-death trust level. Detaching from the military with a disillusioned, disgruntled mindset must be a lonely feeling. Gone are a rock-solid support system and all the safety nets the military provides.
Yes, leaving the military on bad terns must be a jarring blow indeed.
So is it really such a stretch to see where someone who unhappily leaves the military – who loses the structure and leadership and peer-pressure the military provides – might adopt the extreme views of others with a new goal in mind?
Timothy McVeigh filled his void with such views. So did his cohort, Terry Nichols – and, by the way, those two met and served together in the Army.
I appreciate Sen. Inhofe’s concern over sullying the reputations of veterans. But let’s not bury our head in the sand in the name of honoring the military.
Perhaps if we’d been less shocked when two Army veterans paired up to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, our history would be much different.
One stinkin’ apple
What a yo-yo week this has been. On one hand, there’s the Navy’s spectacular rescue of Richard Phillips from Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Then yesterday, a former Navy yeoman was sentenced in an identity theft scam in Fort Worth, Texas. Click here for the story in Tuesday’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
This was no small-potato scam. And my husband and I were among the victims.
Cora Dixon spent years stealing the identities of her shipmates. For that, she got 15 years and was discharged under “less than honorable” conditions. Let’s just call it what it is: bad conduct. Way bad.
In an odd twist, I drilled for months in the same office with Ms. Dixon, all the while knowing she was being investigated for swiping my identity. She hardly spoke as she sat behind the receptionist desk wearing her Navy winter blues. Now she’ll wear an entirely different uniform.
Ms. Dixon and her cohorts deliberately targeted mobilized reservists, which is when we’re most financially vulnerable, unaware or unable to fix things that go awry.
For instance, while I was on the USS Blue Ridge in Yokosuka, Japan, in August 2005, my ATM Visa card stopped working. Fortunately it happened toward the end of my three-week tour because I had no access to cash and no idea why.
Turns out, Bank of America had detected suspicious behavior and blocked use of the card. When I got home, I learned that someone charged hundreds of dollars while gambling online.
Our first ID theft experience came when someone went on a check-writing spree using our account. The damage was in the thousands. Bank of America took the financial hit on that one, but it took substantial time and effort to close the account and start fresh. Just re-establishing direct deposits and automatic payments was huge.
Also, in 2004, some guy was caught trying to cash a check at a Dallas grocery store using a driver’s license in my husband’s name.
Financial hiccups such as these happened repeatedly over the last several years. We always wondered why - now we know.
We were also lucky. Either we caught the irregularities, or the bank did, before too much damage was done. We didn’t lose any money, since the incidents were clearly fraudulent. What we did lose was time. And, of course, trust.
Ms. Dixon was not a true shipmate. She’s an anomaly in what is otherwise a trustworthy organization. No wish of “fair winds and following seas” for her.
Just good riddance.
Way to go, Navy!
My Navy pride is swelling again. And why not? With zero room for error and the world watching, three Navy snipers took out the bad guys and prompted the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips of the U.S. flagged Maersk Alabama.
Five days of swashbuckling drama on the Indian Ocean’s high seas ended in a matter of seconds. Now that’s what I call gun control.
So what will this mean for pirates and their potential loot?
Piracy is too lucrative and their targets too many to simply go away. Plus, merchant ships too often just pay the ransom when their cargo and crew are captured.
Or they enter a standoff. Dozens of seafarers of various nationalities are
Richard Phillips, rescued captain of the Maersk Alabama, shakes hands with Lt. Cmdr David Fowler, commanding officer of the USS Bainbridge, the Navy destoryer from where three Navy SEAL snipers nixed three pirates holding Philliips h9stage in a nearby lifeboat.(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy)
still being held hostage by pirates in lawless Somalia as “negotiations” continue.
Piracy is far more perplexing - and the oceans too vast - for the United States to battle this problem alone. With this long-simmering issue now at a peak, it might be time to turn up the volume on some international chat.
For now, however, we can revel in our Navy and its three sharpshooters, who come from the elite SEAL team. Their specialized training and penchant for danger make them a breed unto themselves.
It ain’t easy doing sit-ups with telephone poles on SEAL Beach at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, where they train across the bay from San Diego. Or staying under water in full combat gear. As the saying goes: the only easy day was yesterday.
Killing those three pirates ina volatile standoff may spark retaliation toward American-flagged ships in the future – or it may have the opposite effect.
“Don’t mess with those Americans and their warships – they aim to kill.”
Regardless, our Navy rocked the world yesterday. Now, how cool is that?
High Drama on the High Seas
Piracy on the high seas: It’s dramatic, suspenseful and dangerous — and it’s a foe the U.S. Navy and international naval forces have been battling for as long as ships have crossed the ocean.
Somali pirates trawling for treasure have captured at least a half-dozen cargo vessels in the last week alone.
The reason the ever-growing, low-tech problem of piracy now dominates U.S. headlines is only because of the latest capture April 8, that of an American cargo vessel Maersk Alabama and its captain-turned-hostage, Richard Phillips.
Truth is, the pirates are now holding 54 captives for ransom, in addition to Phillips.
Enter the U.S. Navy, which has prioritized anti-piracy efforts in a big way in recent years. Why? Because just as the demand has increased for products from overseas, including oil, so has the potential for ransom from commercial shipping companies, many of which are willing to pay pirates rather than fight or risk harm to their loot or crews.
Look, the world is seven-tenths water. There’s no way to patrol millions of square miles of seas simultaneously. Some of the world’s major shipping channels travel through five relatively tiny “choke points” or narrow passages that can’t be avoided to get from there to here.
Pirates know where to lay in waiting for some vulnerable, unarmed vessel with a sparse crew to pass through — and then cha-ching. It’s payday.
In January, the U.S. Navy established Task Force 151, a multinational coalition of naval forces set up to combat piracy.
Individual vessels also take on pirates, and sometimes win. Tactics to ward off would-be pirates have included spraying them with fire hoses and stretching barbed wire along the sides of ships to prevent pirates from boarding.
Pirates, on the other hand, are savvy operators and the most recent outcome involving Captain Phillips is still to be determined.
Having that talk — again
As the Sunday morning talking heads debated whether we’d have 80,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan by year’s end, my husband, Perry, said it again: “I want to go.”
“Why in the world do you want to go back to that crazy reality?” I asked him. “Wasn’t hearing “duck and cover” over and over on Easter last year enough?”
Last Easter, Perry, a Navy reserve intelligence officer, was stationed at FOB Shield near Sadr City, which was repeatedly pelted with small (but deadly) bombs in recognition of the Christian holiday. Geesh.
In July, his seven-month tour in Iraq ended. I know hehad hit his stride and wanted to stay longer. I was mobilized as well, for a year, but in Williamsburg, Va., not in actual combat. Now we’re both home, but it has only been in the last couple months that our lives began to feel somewhat normal again.
So why even think about going back? His reasons are always the same.
“I want to be where the action is.”
“I want to feel relevant.”
“I wasn’t ready to leave Iraq when I did.”
It’s more complicated than that. For one, Perry’s youngest son Michael graduates from high school in June, then soon heads to college. That empty nest feeling looms.
As a civilian, Perry is a partner in a law firm that is managing better than most in this tenuous economy. But turning in time sheets at the firm is no match for real-time pursuits of “bad actors” and helping the Iraqis rebuild the Iraqi court system.
Also, coming home can seem foreign for awhile. Adjusting to our abundance again is uncomfortable. So is the realization that life back home continues without you just fine. Sure, you’re missed, but you also miss out on a lot while you’re being missed.
I don’t want him to go and tell him so. Too many times I’ve heard of warriors returning home safely only to get killed on their second or third tour back in the sandbox. Why tempt fate?
We change the channel to an old western movie and Afghanistan falls out of the conversation for the time being. My thoughts drift to paint swatches for the bedroom – a welcome bit of trivia, but trivial just the same. I know this conversation isn’t over yet. I just don’t know how it’ll turn out.
Volunteered or Voluntold?
More than 500 Navy reservists board a jet bound for Iraq and Kuwait to fulfill a seven-month deployment. They served a customs and cargo handling mission in 2008 with the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group, based in Williamsburg, Va. All of them volunteered for the mission.
So we’re sending 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Does that mean another round of arm-twisting and groans to get boots on the ground? My guess is that a good portion of those troops already have their hands raised to volunteer.
Here’s why: More than a few of our warriors actually thrive on the excitement of a combat zone. Yes, they leave their families, and yes, that is hard. But I’ve been told more than once that the minute they hit the sand in some foreign land, they’ve already formed another kind of family with their comrades in arms. It’s tight, it’s important, they have a purpose bigger than all of them together.
The pay ain’t so bad, either, since everything else is taken care of — clothes, bullets, grub , bedroll, transportation, haircuts — you get the idea.
Top that off with tax-free income, hazardous pay, great chow (the dining halls in the war zones serve a round-the-clock buffet extraordinaire, including free Baskin-Robbins ice cream).
Forget mowing the lawn or finding a babysitter or any other mundane chore. Heck, you don’t even have to decide what to wear.
Then there are those who have been to combat zones a few times. Guess what? That sort of becomes reality for them. In a weird way, i’s actually more comfortable than the trivial day-in, day-out occurrences of life back home. And there;s often a bump in status. A soldier might be a car rental salesman at home, but over there he’s actually in charge of a battalion.
Another thing: I hate to say it, but some raise their hands because their personal lives are a wreck. Or, they don’t have a job. Or they relish the immediate ”hero” status that comes with being deployed.
No doubt it’s appealing to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Duty, honor, country – they do mean something
But the reasons some are so willing to go aren’t always that simple.
