[MeanWestTexan]

My father-in-law became a US citizen in much this manner circa WWII.

He served the duration of the war, and then some, with mutiple tours in Europe and Korea.

[Blogger]

At least they are using a legal avenue. If they are willing to put their lives on the line to become Americans, provided their backgrounds check out, I have no problem with it.

[Caramelgal]

My father-in-law became a US citizen in much this manner circa WWII.

My dad was born in Norway. He came here when he was 8 years old.

He had just turned 19 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and like most of the young guys from his neighborhood, he went to enlist.

He tried enlisting in the Navy, then the Marines, then the Army, but none of the military branches would take him because he wasn’t a citizen. Or perhaps his immigration papers weren’t quite in order? I’m not sure. I do know his mother, my grandmother came here after she was widowed, a few years before going back for my father, using the ocean liner ticket of a friend of hers who decided not to go. (Could it have been that my Grandmother wasn’t quite legal? – I don’t know for sure :),)

Anyway, my father went back to work as an apprentice carpenter on the Long Island railroad and then he got drafted by the Army. As railway workers were considered essential to the war effort, he could have taken a deferment but chose not to.

My father shipped out from San Francisco with his infantry unit for the South Pacific, fought in the Solomon Islands, the second battle of Manila, and in Bougainville, and served until the end of the war with honor.

After the war and after he married my mother, he went through the naturalization process.

The judge officiating at the swearing in ceremony, told him that it was just a formality since when he took the oath of military service, he had for all intense purposes, become a defacto citizen. The judge told my father that he didn’t have to go through with the ceremony as he had already proved himself as an American citizen.

But my dad went through with it anyway as he felt it was important, especially since my mother was then carrying my older brother.

Although he wasn’t born here, there was no more fiercely patriotic, red, white and true blue American than my dad. And he knew and understood American history better than many natural born citizens.