Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. military chaplains will no longer wear rank insignia, instead displaying symbols of their faith.
Chaplains will retain their rank, he said in a video announcement Tuesday, but the new directive will shift how they are identified in uniform. Hegseth added that he would sign a memorandum solidifying the change.
Before the change, a chaplain’s uniform carried their rank insignia along with a symbol denoting their religion.
The policy, he said, “speaks to the difficult balance of the duality of a military chaplain. A chaplain is first and foremost a chaplain and an officer second. This change is a visual representation of that fact.”
Hegseth also said that removing rank allowed chaplains to “be seen among the highest ranks because of their divine calling.”
The directive follows a broader effort by Hegseth to reshape the military’s Chaplain Corps. In a December message, he said he wanted to restore chaplains’ focus on ministry and argued that the role had shifted toward counseling and support functions in recent years.
He terminated the Army’s spiritual fitness guide and said he would simplify how the military categorizes religious affiliation.
In his most recent message, Hegseth said that the number of religious affiliation codes was reduced from over 200 to just 31. Military Times was unable to independently verify these numbers.
The military uses those codes to categorize troops’ religious beliefs.
The move “brings the codes in line with its original purpose, giving chaplains clear, usable information so they can minister to service members in a way that aligns with that service member’s faith background and religious practice,” Hegseth said.
The defense secretary added that the Pentagon was not stopping with the pair of changes.
“We’re not even close to being done,” he said.
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.
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