A US Army sergeant is thought to be the first Christian in the service to receive a religious exemption to skip the crew cut and grow his hair out.
On July 25, Sgt. Jacob DiPietro of the Florida Army Reserve's 489th Transportation Company received the go ahead from his superiors that he could officially grow his hair in religious observance.
'In observance with your Christian faith, you may wear uncut hair in accordance with Army uniform and grooming standards provided in Army Regulation (AR) 670-1,' a memo to DiPietro from Lieutenant General Gary M. Brito, the head of Army personnel read.
'You may grow your hair in accordance with the standards for long hair set forth in AR 670-1.'
Sgt. Jacob DiPietros is thought to be the first Christian in the service to receive a religious exemption to skip the crew cut and grow his hair out. He was first granted permission to grow out his beard last year (he is pictured in May 2021) but had to wait until this year for permission to grow out his hair
It capped a two-year effort on the soldier's part after he put in his initial request for the exemption.
DiPietro observes the Christian Nazarite vow from the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament, according to Task & Purpose, which states that, 'no razor may be used on their head.'
In the New Testament, John the Baptist and Paul are known to have taken the Nazarite vow, which also calls forbids alcohol consumption, according to Christianity.com.
DiPietro wasn't always a Nazerite, however.
He joined the Army in 2010 on the day he turned 18. He said he had known he would join the military upon witnessing the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when he was in third grade.
DiPietro's request languished for two years in Pentagon bureaucracy. While he was granted the exemption to grow his beard out early on, he did not get the go-ahead to grow his hair out until last week
'That seed was planted early in my life, he told Task & Purpose. 'I knew what I was going to do.'
He said he enjoyed his service, where he worked as a cargo specialist for several years, until he returned home from deployment in Kuwait in 2017, and went through a dark period in his home life.
He had gotten married to a women he had been dating for years, but when she became pregnant with their first child, she left him.
That was when he said he turned to prayer.
'I noticed that
