Non Citizens Serving in US Military

5KidsMom said:

Does anyone know if there are any special requirements or regulations for a non-US citizen to serve in our military? I would guess that there would be some concern over making sure the person is actually loyal to our government and not another, but I don't know how that would be accomplished.

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You have to swear loyalty, of course, but a great many people have become citizens directly though military service. It's an old an honored tradition.

The only real requirement to join the military is that you must be a legal immigrant.

And once you serve in the military, many requirements of citizenship are waived, and gaining citizenship is much easier.

The only difference I saw was that some were unable to get the higher security clearances. Of course, that also held true for citizens with relatives in certain countries, or who were married to foreign nationals.

Last time I checked, there was no concrete regulations governing the admittance of foreign nationals.

Jamesaritchie and Gary said several things that are correct.

Keep in mind that the matter of security will be determined by what occupation the soldier will have. If he's a dirt digger, no problem. He can parents in Russian for all that it matters. If he/she/or it is accessing Confindential level material, still no general problem. After that, at the Secret, Top Secret, etc, that will change.

I've had people Nicaragua, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Mexico, France, Germany and so on serving in the U.S. military are regular grunts. Generally it's a bit slower for them to get in do to security checks, but it's not an insurmountable problem. To boot, it was all during the height of the Cold War years.

Foreigners may not get stationed at all the cool, secure locations, but they can sure carry a gun and stand a post.

As for loyal oaths........their's carries no more weight than that of an American IMO. We had our own people sell us out plenty of times. The foreign national takes the same oath as do all others.

Hope that helps.

When I deployed to Iraq, we had a naturalization ceremony for thirty or so non-citizen soldiers in my brigade. An immigration judge came and administered the oath of citizenship right there in front of the formation. It was very cool.

As far as I know, there is no special requirement for legal immigrants to join the armed forces. As James and Van have already said, they take the same oath and attend the same basic training everybody else does. I knew of no trouble between soldiers on the basis of where they came from; the guys were more concerned about whether a fellow could pull his weight than they were about where he came from.

The oath is this: to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; to bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and to well and faithfully execute the duties of one's office (for officers) or to obey the orders of the officers appointed over one (for elisted). So it pretty much ignores a service member's country of citizenship.

Hope this helps.
HN

One thing

Since 9/11, I'm told that the matter of security and clearance is investigated much more thoroughly, but that being from a country we are currently having problems with can actually be an advantage.

It would have helped if the OP would have listed a specific timeframe. During the early years of the Cold War the Lodge Act allowed many persons of foreign birth (specifically those from behind the Iron Curtain) to enlist with few (if any) restrictions. Many of the early Special Forces members joined via the Lodge Act (Larry Thorne is one who springs immediately to mind).

If you live in or near a big city, you might want to check out the movie "The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez"

José Antonio Gutierrez was one of the 300,000 soldiers sent by US Army to war in Iraq. A few hours after the war began, his picture was broadcast all over the world: he was the first American soldier to be killed in the war. He was there as a so-called 'green-card soldier' — one of approximately 32,000, fighting in the ranks of the US Army for a foreign country.

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