The Struggle to Serve

For decades, Sikh Americans who wanted to serve in the United States military faced a policy that required them to cut their hair and shave their beards — a demand that is, for observant Sikhs, a fundamental violation of their faith. Captain Tejdeep Rattan, Major Kamal Jeet Singh Kalsi, and Corporal Simran Lamba each went through extended legal and administrative battles to serve without compromising their identity. Kalsi deployed to Afghanistan and was awarded the Bronze Star. The process of getting permission to do so took a year and a half of paperwork.

The film documents the specifics of what these soldiers went through: the gas mask tests used to argue that turbans were a safety hazard, the Pentagon Vaisakhi celebration in 2014 that marked a shift in official recognition, and the broader question of what it means for a country to ask its citizens to serve while telling them their identity is incompatible with that service. The Struggle to Serve is a film about loyalty tested from both directions, and about three people who decided the institution was worth fighting to change from the inside.