3 GIS BECOME AMERICAN CITIZENS ON EVE OF DEPLOYMENT TO IRAQ

With all the hoopla over illegal aliens in the news as well as dominating much of the political debates for POTUS, this story from the Army Times puts a whole new look on the immigration issue.

Three Oklahoma National Guard soldiers will be getting their citizenship just before they are deployed to Iraq.

(Editor's comment: I wonder if Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, both of whom avoided military service, will have anything to say about the three GIs who will be given their citizenship just in time to leave for Iraq).

Bill Corcoran, editor and host of the only blog in the United States devoted to untold news about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: http://corksphere.blogspot.com/
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Soldiers earn citizenship on eve of deployment

The Associated PressPosted : Sunday Jan 20, 2008 17:33:37 EST

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_citizenship_080120/

TULSA, Okla. — Three Oklahoma National Guard members in El Paso, Texas, preparing for deployment to Iraq have become United States citizens.
Jamaica native Sgt. Gareth Wilson, 27; Spc. Oyewale Hotonu-Oyerinde, 28, from Nigeria; and Tulsan Sgt. Adam Ngotngamwong, whose father is from Thailand and whose mother is Canadian, all gained their citizenship on Friday, expedited by their service with Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry Brigade.

An executive order signed by President Bush shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks means the normal wait required for legal residents of the U.S. is waived for those serving in the military, along with the application fee.

“I just wanted to go to Iraq as an American citizen,” said Tulsan Ngotngamwong, 25, who previously deployed in 2004 to Afghanistan. “It makes it closer to home. You are fighting for your country, instead of just being a legal citizen.”

Wilson also is from Tulsa, and Hotonu-Oyerinde is from Oklahoma City.
The pending deployment of the three to Iraq underscored for them the opportunity to get their citizenship on the fast track.

Initial headquarters elements of Oklahoma’s 45th are deploying over the next few days to their pending mission in Baghdad, Iraq. After a farewell formation Sunday, the unit will begin shipping its soldiers first to Kuwait for processing, then to Baghdad’s International Zone.

Read the rest of the story by clicking on link above from the Army Times.