When dozens of retired General Officers lobbied Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to lift restrictions on Sikhs serving in the US military, the DoD had a somewhat odd response [emphasis added]:

A Pentagon official speaking to Military.com on background said there is no Defense Department policy on Sikhs…to review…

The Defense Department issues standards that the individual services may interpret broadly and implement on their own, with no service bound by a decision made by another…

In essence, the DoD said it doesn’t have a policy preventing Sikhs from serving without abandoning the articles of their faith. Rather, the Pentagon lets each of the services do what they want when it comes to religion — including treating people with the same religious requests differently within the same service.

By contrast, Defense Secretary Ash Carter:

• ordered the entire US military to permit women in combat roles — “without exception” by service or within the services.
• ordered a review of the implications of “welcoming transgender persons to serve openly,” and elevated dismissal of identified transgenders to above-service level.

Previously, following the orders of the President, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ordered all of the services, without exception, to permit homosexuals to serve.

Advocates for Sikhs implied a very interesting question: Why is the US military disposed to making DoD-wide policies on sexuality and gender, but not religion?

Interesting, indeed.

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