Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Troth | Spc. Carlos Villa Rivera, Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation...... read more read more
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CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance now means something more for five soldiers assigned to the Enhanced Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. On President’s Day, they joined with 48 other U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq and took the Oath of Citizenship of the United States of America.
Each of the 53 soldiers, from 31 countries, had different reasons for joining another nation’s Army, but on Feb. 21 their goal in Baghdad was the same – to say the Pledge of Allegiance as a citizen of the United States.
“I can’t stop smiling,” said Sgt. Jennifer Estrella, of Headquarters Company, eCAB. “It is a very emotional thing becoming a citizen.”
“It has been called the ‘Great American Experience’,” said Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, United States Forces-Iraq commander, during the naturalization ceremony. “It is called that because it became a nation of immigrants on a foreign land and none of them knew at the time whether it would succeed or fail.”
Austin went on to say that we gather strength from diversity, and the soldiers who became citizens at Saddam Hussein’s Al Faw Palace are a reminder that our strength as a nation and as an Army comes from ethnic and cultural diversity.
“America is known for having one of the most diverse cultures in the world,” the general said. “We are a diverse nation of men and women who have come from other countries around the world. The United States has citizens that represent nearly every country, language, religion and culture on this planet.”
When Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1992, 12-year-old Estrella left the Philippines and moved to Ohio to live with her mom, who had moved there 10 years earlier.
Spc. John Wix, Headquarters Support Command, 601st Aviation Support Battalion, was a little bit older when he left the United Kingdom for America. At 26 years old, he followed his new bride, who was in the U.S. Air Force, to the states in 1994 when her tour at RAF Alconbury was complete.
“I followed her to the states and around the country – to Wyoming, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Texas and Nebraska,” said Wix.
When he first got to the states he went to college and became a certified mechanic, a job he knew he would be able to do wherever his active-duty wife was assigned. In 2007, now a father of two U.S. born children, he knew he wanted to do more.
“I was looking at doing something, and then the Army changed its age limit to 42, and I was 41 ½,” said Wix. “I wanted to become a U.S. citizen, but I didn’t want to do it until I had felt I had earned it.”
Estrella joined the Army and decided to become a citizen due to learning the value of family while growing up in the Philippines.
“I never met my father, but I had heard he was in the service, so I thought serving would bring me somewhat closer to him,” she said. “There has been a flood and another volcano eruption in the Philippines, so becoming a U.S. citizen gives me the chance to go look for my family myself, instead of paying someone to do it for me.”
Wix wishes that his wife and children could have been at the ceremony, but knew this was the time to do it, even though it meant staying in Iraq a couple of extra weeks.
“It was good to do it with this group,” he said. “It surprises me the diversity that the U.S. Army has. There are people from pretty much every nation around the world serving in the U.S. military. If you look at other militaries around the world, most require you to be a citizen to serve. The beauty of the U.S. military is that you can come in as a resident.”
Wix may have not had his family with him at the ceremony but he did have fellow Englishman, Spc. Christopher Millard, who is not only in the same company as him, but is from a town about 15 miles away from where he grew up.
The eCAB’s two other newest U.S. citizens did not have as far to travel to get to the States. Spc. Ryan Mclellan, Company B, 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment, is from Canada. Spc. Carlos Villa Rivera, Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment, was born in Mexico. Other countries represented at the President’s Day ceremony were Russia, Guatemala, Korea, Germany and Denmark.
The eCAB soldiers and the other 48 had a chance to meet each other and trade stories of their journey from their homeland to Saddam’s palace the week leading up to the ceremony. All were brought from their bases throughout Iraq to ensure that their citizenship and passport paperwork were in order prior to reciting the Pledge of Allegiance as U.S. citizens for the first time.
“The strangest thing is going to be when I travel back to the U.K. with an American passport this spring,” said Wix.
| Date Taken: | 02.21.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.01.2011 04:56 |
| Story ID: | 66276 |
| Location: | CAMP VICTORY, IQ |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 4 |
This work, Soldiers take Oath of Citizenship, by SFC Jeff Troth, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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