Navy Chaplain (Lt.) Jesus Dominguez, right, applies ash to a sailor’s forehead during an Ash Wednesday service aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower on Feb. 18, 2026. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that military chaplains would no longer display their rank insignia, but will instead display an insignia depicting their "divine calling." (Jamison Sutton/U.S. Navy)
The Pentagon is doing away with rank insignias for military chaplains, requiring them to instead display religious insignia as part of broader changes to the chaplain corps, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced this week.
Chaplains will still retain their ranks, Hegseth said in a video announcement Tuesday, but the change is meant to highlight the importance of the chaplain’s role as a religious leader.
Eliminating rank insignia will also help junior officers or enlisted personnel feel more comfortable approaching officers, or potentially senior officers, about sensitive subjects, like addiction, relationships or struggles with faith, he said.
“A chaplain is first and foremost a chaplain, and an officer second,” Hegseth said. “This change is a visual representation of that fact.”
The Pentagon late last year announced plans to overhaul the military’s chaplain corps, which Hegseth said had become too focused on political correctness and secular humanism. He eliminated the Army’s spiritual fitness guide and vowed to streamline the military’s faith and belief coding system.
Chaplain (Lt. Cmdr.) Leszek N. Sikorski, left, and Bishop Richard B. Higgins, vicar for Veterans Affairs Archdiocese for the Military Services, spread holy water throughout the chapel at Naval Air Station Oceana, Va., in this undated photo. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that military chaplains will no longer wear their rank insignias and that the Pentagon would reduce the number of faith codes used by the Chaplain Corps to 31, down from more than 200. (Antonio Turretto Ramos/U.S. Navy)
Since 2017, the Defense Department has recognized 221 groups as religious denominations or belief systems, ranging from mainstream to obscure Christian sects, Wiccans and atheists.
That system was impractical and unusual, Hegseth said this week. Moving forward, the Pentagon will use 31 religious affiliation codes.
“This 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,” he said.
More than 80% of service members identify as being religious, Hegseth said, without citing a source.
Hegseth called the latest reforms the first steps toward returning chaplains to their esteemed positions as moral anchors of the armed forces.
“In combat, in crisis, in loss, a warfighter needs more than a coping mechanism,” Hegseth said. “They need truth, ‘big T truth.’ They need conviction. They need a shepherd.”
