The U.S. Army this week gave its chaplains 90 days to strip the rank from their uniforms in a move that puts a definitive timeline on a directive championed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has sought to shift religious leaders’ identities from their military grade to their faiths.
Army chaplains have 90 days to remove rank from Army Combat Uniforms and 180 days to remove it from cold weather gear. The new guidance, signed by Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, also tells chaplains exactly where to attach religious branch insignia on uniforms and headgear.
The changes do not apply to chaplain candidates nor the rank and insignia worn on chaplains’ Army Service Uniform.
Though chaplains retain their rank, the new guidance implements Hegseth’s March directive that a military chaplain “is first and foremost a chaplain and an officer second.”
“This change is a visual representation of that fact,” he said in a March video announcement.
The directive provided a list of permissible faith insignia: “The approved designs consist of the Latin cross, the Jewish tablets (with the Star of David superimposed), the Muslim crescent moon, the Buddhist wheel of righteousness, and the Hindu Om.”
Removing rank insignia from chaplain uniforms is one of many sweeping changes the defense secretary has made to overhaul the military’s Chaplain Corps. Hegseth eliminated the Army’s spiritual fitness guide, and the Pentagon recently reduced the number of religious affiliation codes from over 200 to just 31.
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.