Second Lieutenant Anmol Narang will become the first observant Sikh to graduate the prestigious US Military Academy at West Point in New York on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump will deliver remarks at the 2020 US Military Academy at West Point graduation ceremony. “I am excited and honoured to be fulfilling my dream of graduating from West Point on Saturday,” Narang was quoted as saying in an AP report on the eve of the historic occasion.
“The confidence and support of my community back home in Georgia has been deeply meaningful to me, and I am humbled that in reaching this goal, I am showing other Sikh Americans that any career path is possible for anyone willing to rise to the challenge,” she said.
Narang became interested in a military career during high school and began the process of applying to West Point after she visited the Pearl Harbour memorial at Honolulu, Hawaii.
Before being appointed in West Point, she attended one year of undergraduate in Georgia Institute of Technology. At West Point, she studied nuclear engineering hoping to pursue a career path in air defence systems.
Narang will complete her Fundamental Officer Management Course at Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma. There is an estimate of 500,000 people of Sikh-American ethnicity in the US.
The prestigious academy boasts of known alumni including current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, renowned poet Edgar Allen Poe, 34th US president Dwight Eisenhower and current US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
It wasn’t until 1976, that the academy, in its then-174-year-old history began accepting women candidates.
In 1987, the US Congress passed a law that prohibited Sikhs and several other religious communities from maintaining their articles of faith while in the military, despite a history of diverse service and simple accommodations.
For about 30 years, visible symbols that showcased Sikh faith like unshorn facial hairs and turbans were banned, The Sikh Coalition said.
An officer of the army Captain Simratpal Singh and family friend of Narang said, “The broader acceptance of Sikh service members among all of the service branches, as well as in top tier leadership spaces like West Point, will continue to benefit not just the rights of religious minority individuals, but the strength and diversity of the US military.”
Simratpal Singh's 2016 suit over his own right to maintain his articles of faith in uniform spurred a critical change in the Army's accommodations policy in 2017. This streamlined the accommodations process for Sikh soldiers and ensured that accommodations would stay with them throughout their career.
Currently, there are at least 60 Sikhs serving in the US Army and Airforce.