New Citizens in the Volunteer Military
Perhaps the ultimate volunteers are the people who enlist in military service, willingly giving up years of their lives to defend their country and their fellow citizens. The demands of duty are great, the pay is relatively low, but the volunteer military remains strong. Since the military draft ended in 1973, the United States has relied on volunteers to fill its military forces, numbering more than 1.4 million.
Thousands of noncitizen immigrants are in the ranks of the U.S. military. As of September 2009, more than 50,000 immigrant soldiers had become citizens since September 2001, and the number keeps growing.
At a naturalization ceremony at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina in October 2008, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates welcomed 42 men and women into citizenship. These soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines hailed from 26 countries, and many had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “This nation that welcomes you with warmth and with pride is very much in your debt, because you have shown your love for this country in the most honorable way possible,” Gates said.
“ Every soldier who received their citizenship today took steps long before this to get their citizenship, and we all served our nation even before we could call it home.”
