Scripting history, Anmol Kaur Narang has become the first American Sikh woman to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. She is now commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Defense Artillery branch of the United States Army.
Due to Covid-19 delaying graduation, members of the class commissioned May 23 during an oath of commissioning ceremony from remote locations.
“I am excited and honored to be fulfilling my dream of graduating from West Point tomorrow,” Narang stated in a press release issued by the Sikh Coalition and distributed by Press Release Point. “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.”
Anmol will complete her Basic Officer Leadership Course at Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma, after which she will head to her first posting in Okinawa, Japan, in January 2021.
A second-generation Indian American born and raised in Roswell, Georgia, Narang had an early appreciation for military service due to her maternal grandfather’s career in the Indian army, as per the press release. After a gradually growing interest in military service during high school, she began her application for West Point the afternoon after her family visited Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii. She attended one year of undergraduate study at the Georgia Institute of Technology before transferring to West Point, where she proceeded to study nuclear engineering and pursue a career path in air defense systems.
“I am immensely proud of 2LT Narang for seeing her goal through and, in doing so, breaking a barrier for any Sikh American who wishes to serve,” said U.S. Army Captain Simratpal Singh, a family friend of Narang’s. “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 U.S. military.”