Hegseth says military chaplains will no longer display rank

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. military chaplains will stop wearing rank insignia and will display religious symbols instead, and that the Pentagon will cut its list of recognized faith codes from over 200 to 31, reforms he says will improve spiritual care and reinforce the chaplain’s religious role.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced two major changes to the military's chaplaincy corps on March 24, one of which will mean chaplains will no longer wear their rank insignia.

They will instead display their religious insignia while retaining their rank as officers. They "will be seen among the highest ranks because of their divine calling," Hegseth said in a video posted to X.

The change reflects Hegseth's wider effort to infuse the chaplaincy, and the military more broadly, with more explicitly religious sentiments.

Service members’ spiritual health should be seen as equally important as physical and mental health, Hegseth said, lamenting what he said was the chaplaincy’s misguided shift over the years away from focusing on religious faith in favor of "self-help and self-care."

"A warfighter needs more than a coping mechanism," he said. "They need truth, big-T truth, they need conviction, they need a shepherd."

Hegseth also said the move would make chaplains more accessible by reducing "any unease or anxiety" service members may have about approaching a superior to discuss sensitive issues.

He also announced that the Pentagon would use 31 faith codes moving forward instead of the more than 200 previously recognized. He called that higher number an "impractical and unusable system."

A smaller, more streamlined system will support chaplains in "minister(ing) to service members in a way that aligns with that service member’s faith background and religious practice," said Hegseth, adding that the Pentagon is "not even close to being done" in taking steps toward "restoring the esteemed position of chaplain."

"You have a sacred calling," Hegseth said in closing. "So preach the truth, be steadfast in your faith, and shepherd the flock entrusted to you."

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A history of debates over religious diversity in the military

President George Washington established the Chaplain Corps in 1775. It was exclusively Protestant at its founding, but introduced Catholic chaplains and a rabbi in the 19th century. 

The first Muslim chaplain was picked in 1994, and the first Buddhist chaplain followed in 2008.

There have been controversies and debates over the extent to which the military should accommodate religious expression. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 ruled that the Air Force could prohibit an Orthodox Jewish service member from wearing a yarmulke while in uniform.

Though it restrained his religious expression, the court said the ban "reasonably and evenhandedly" supported the military’s "perceived need for uniformity."