DENVER, CO (TIP): Following in the footsteps of her father Colonel (Ret.) G.B. Singh, Sikh American Naureen Singh will be serving in the armed forces as an officer. Naureen Singh, 26, a community organizer from Colorado Springs, has just been appointed a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.
Naureen’s father Colonel (Ret.) G.B. Singh is the U.S. Army’s highest-ranking Sikh American to keep his turban while serving active duty.
Lieutenant Singh is now a second- generation Sikh American to serve as an officer in the Armed Forces. Her father, Colonel (Ret.) G.B Singh joined the U.S. Army in 1979, one of a small number of Sikhs allowed to retain articles of faith, grandfathered in after a change in policy in the early 1980s forbidding soldiers from exhibiting their religion with “conspicuous” clothing or style of hair or beard. While the Pentagon does not track religious affiliations within families serving, Singh believes they are among the very first to have two generations of Sikh Americans, serving as officers in the United States Armed Forces.
Naureen is currently a student at the University of Colorado- Denver, pursuing her master’s in Criminal Justice.