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Sikh Girl Patrols Streets of Afghanistan
Earlimart, California (KP) - She slung an M 16 rifle on her shoulders for the first time when she was 17. Now at 20, she is patrolling the streets of Kabul. Ranbir Kaur of the U.S National Guards first hit headlines in 2003 after becoming the first Sikh girl to join the U.S. armed forces that consists of over 200,000 women soldiers. Presently on active duty in Afghanistan, Specialist Kaur is on a one-and-a-half-year mission in the war-torn country. She was initially recruited to be a supply clerk during the Iraq war, as rules didnt permit women to fight frontline. However, she says in a situation like Afghanistan, everything is frontline. Born in Nijjran, village of Jalandhar district, the young warrior reached the U.S as a seven year old after her father Mahan Singh secured a green card in 1990. Brought up in the isolated town of Earlimart California, her brush with the uniform dates back to 2001 when she was a freshman in high school at Delano, which was the closest city. I would see [officers of the] army, marines, air force and the navy standing outside the career center of the school distributing fliers to students. I thought the uniform was awesome. During the 2005 Katrina hurricane in New Orleans, the devout Sikh was instrumental in the recovery of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib after the New Orleans Gurdwara was submerged. United Sikhs, an organization, had sought her assistance and Ranbir had helped get things moving after she was told that that saroops of Guru Granth Sahib Ji ned to be retrieved from the submerged Gurdwara Sahib. Posted by: Steve 2006-05-22 |
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