Airman 1st Class Sunjit Singh Rathour stood out in the crowd as he graduated Thursday from Security Forces training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

It was inevitable, given that he was the only airman in Team 36 wearing a beard and a turban as he crossed the stage.

“To be honest, it went in the blink of an eye,” he told reporters. “It felt amazing.”

At 18, Rathour had already become the first Sikh to graduate from Air Force basic training with exceptions allowing him to wear the beard and turban required by his religion. He finished the 13-week Security Forces Apprentice Course with a flourish, drawing a crowd of media after the ceremony.

He is believed to be one of only two observant Sikhs serving in the Air Force. An additional 60 or so are thought to be in the Army. Rathour, a member of his high school ROTC unit, got help from the Sikh American Veterans Alliance, along with a law firm and the American Civil Liberties Union after deciding that he wanted to join the Air Force.

A lot of conversations ensued with the Pentagon.

“How, exactly, is it implemented? What’s the color of the turban? So we went through all of this,” said Army Reserve Lt. Col. Kamaljeet S. Kalsi, president of the alliance. “To the Air Force’s credit, they made sure there would not be any safety issues, other issues that would come up. And they said, ‘We can do this. We can make this work.’ And they granted Sunjit a very historic accommodation.”

Sikhs have had a long history of serving in the U.S. military, particularly in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, Kalsi said, noting that they have worn the uniform since the late 19th century. A ban on beards imposed in the mid-1980s has only gradually eased in recent years.

Rathour faced another problem. Chief Master Sgt. Donnie Gallagher’s first meeting with him came after word of his entering Security Forces training broke on social media. Comments from older Security Forces alumni and other veterans appeared on a website slamming Rathour’s religious accommodation.

“There were a lot of people making hateful, ignorant statements, obviously not knowing the difference between religions and values and beliefs, and basically he just came under attack,” said Gallagher, chief enlisted manager of the 343rd Training Squadron, which produces Security Forces airmen.

Rathour shrugged off the matter, saying he’d lived through worse in New York.

His journey wouldn’t have happened if not for determined Sikhs before him, among them Capt. Simratpal Singh and Kalsi, a New York City-area doctor who was on hand for Thursday’s ceremony at Carter Hall. Joining the reserves before 9/11, Kalsi found that his beard and turban weren’t an issue. But then he was told to shave when he entered active duty in 2009.

Kalsi and others lobbied hard. A letter with the signatures of 50 lawmakers was sent to then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates. A petition signed by 15,000 people went to the Pentagon as well.

“It took a year and a half going up the chain of command. It was this huge fight just to get me and a handful of Sikh soldiers in, so when I got my accommodation in 2009, it was the first of its kind in over a generation,” Kalsi recalled.

“What’s important about that, though, is it helped open doors for other minorities, because I know the next few people who got in (with religious accommodations) were actually not Sikhs,” he added. “They were Muslim and Jewish, and so I’m proud of that. I’m proud we were able to open doors for other communities as well.”

But the fight wasn’t over. Nine more years were needed to change policy in the Army. Singh, a West Point graduate, was a decorated combat veteran who received a long-term religious accommodation from the Army in 2016 to serve with long hair, turban and beard. The decision followed a judge’s order.

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The Sikh Coalition said Singh decided to shave his beard and give up his turban when he entered West Point in 2006, well before exceptions were granted. He graduated with honors as an engineer four years later, vowing to someday abide by his faith.

Singh earned the Ranger tab and served as a platoon leader in Afghanistan in 2012-13, spearheading a team that cleared bombs. He received the Bronze Star. He earned a master’s degree when he came home and sought a religious accommodation in 2015.

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The Army initially granted a short-term exception, but the coalition later filed suit in federal court because Singh was subjected “to bureaucratic loopholes and arbitrary testing.” The group won the case in 2016.

The case “played a big role in the Army creating a policy allowing observant Sikhs to serve,” the coalition said in an emailed statement Thursday. “Additionally, the exemplary record of the observant Sikhs who were already serving based on individual accommodations proved that their articles of faith were not a barrier to serving in the military.”

Similar policy changes are needed in other military branches, the organization believes. Kalsi said the process took around six months in Rathour’s case and that the Air Force had no objection to his serving. He said Sikhs still do not serve in the Navy, Marines or Coast Guard.

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The Air Force had granted an earlier exception to a Sikh airman, but he chose to cut his hair and remain cleanshaven throughout basic training, said Bob Rubio, chief spokesman for the 37th Training Wing. When Rathour graduated in June from basic, the Air Force didn’t publicize it — Rubio said the service also has graduated a transgender airman from basic and technical training but similarly kept it quiet.

The secret was finally out Thursday, with Rathour’s father, Army veteran and New York correctional officer Raja G.S. Rathour, 52, and other family members in the front row of the auditorium. One was the airman’s older brother, Delare Singh Rathour, who became the New York Police Department’s first turbaned officer in 2017.

Though he looked a little different from the other Security Forces graduates, the younger Rathour said he got along well with his peers.

“They were more curious than anything, so they loved to ask questions and I had no trouble answering,” he said. “They wonder what the beard is about, what the turban is about, what my religion is, and they asked me how I got the religious accommodation.”

“Whatever God gives you, you have to keep. And it just signifies my faith and my culture, and it just signifies who I am.”

The airmen found it fascinating, he said.

Rathour’s father said that when he joined the Army’s law enforcement field during the 1980s, he had to cut his hair, shave his beard and take off the turban. Military service was part of the family tradition, with an uncle serving in the Army and an aunt in the Navy. A few cousins also served in the Air Force and Navy.

“I’m just flabbergasted and just thankful, and praise the Lord that the United States Air Force has done a great job of accepting the Sikhs in the military with their turban, with their articles of faith, with their beard. I’m just so proud of my son,” Raja Rathour said. “Hopefully, there are more young Sikhs to follow him.”

sigc@express-news.net