The US Navy had a decades long program that allowed Filipinos to enlist and receive citizenship after serving 8 years. I grew up in CC and we had at least a dozen Filipino families in our HS as a result of the program when their dads stayed after serving on NAS CC. Good families and the men stayed on to be postal workers or medical techs etc. The program did not allow them to take Navy jobs that required Security clearance they were cooks, orderlies, etc.

Apologies.
Posted in haste without proper vetting....

No, the claim isn't accurate. Most of the 1979 embassy hostage-takers rose to prominent roles in Iran's government, military, or politics, such as vice presidencies, ministerial posts, and IRGC commands, with several dying in the Iran-Iraq War or facing internal fallout. No…

— Grok (@grok) November 4, 2025

This is nothing new.

I have an employee that was here on a green card. His relationship with the green card sponsor soured before renewal, and she refused to sign renewal.

Essentially, his only option was to join to military, which he did in order to stay in the US.

A Foreigner can be as cold as ICE.

Long live Marquis de Lafayette

Permanent legal residents being allowed to enlist, not receive a commission, has been common legal practice throughout the 20th century. I was on recruiting duty 30 years ago and as long as they had a green card, we could enlist them.

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/never-once-did-uncle-alex-talk-about-the-hell-of-the-vietnam-war-he-made-it-sound-like-an-adventure-then-one-night-we-saw-his-name-on-the-tv-he-was-only-26-we-were-all-left-distraught/

Quote:

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"He had joined the Marines to help speed up his US Citizenship and then graduated with the Marine top award for his year.

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Sounds like you need to join if you don't like the people who are joining.

Rick Rescorla (RIP) would have wanted to say hello.



The Story of Rick Rescorla, Vietnam Vet and 9/11 Hero

infinity ag said:

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Wait till Mamdani types become Generals…
Most folks here are still stuck in 1776…

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You are so full of *****

Gigem314 said:

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Noblemen06 said:

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More like 250 years or so...

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It makes me think of the scene in 'Gangs of New York' with the Irish immigrants getting off the ship, straight to the U.S. Army recruiters to sign papers, getting their blue uniform and musket, saying "I wonder when they feed us?".

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Indeed, and these Irish mercenaries were given $300 bounties and a promise to make them American citizens. Both of which were expressly forbidden by the U.S. Constitution. Meanwhile, the Irish immigrants (gang bangers) already residing in New York were subject to conscription unless they could pay a $300 exemption fee.

Ulysses90 said:

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Permanent legal residents being allowed to enlist, not receive a commission, has been common legal practice throughout the 20th century. I was on recruiting duty 30 years ago and as long as they had a green card, we could enlist them.

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/never-once-did-uncle-alex-talk-about-the-hell-of-the-vietnam-war-he-made-it-sound-like-an-adventure-then-one-night-we-saw-his-name-on-the-tv-he-was-only-26-we-were-all-left-distraught/

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"He had joined the Marines to help speed up his US Citizenship and then graduated with the Marine top award for his year.

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This was not so in WWII. My father's family were British and legal permanent U.S. residents. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, my uncle tried to enlist in the Army twice and the Marine Corps once. He was turned away each time because he was a British citizen although he had lived almost his entire life in California. After a few more months, he was drafted (by accident) and after some paper shuffling in the Pentagon, he was naturalized while serving in North Africa. I imagine that happened a lot. Hell, they even drafted my British grandfather who was 52 and blind in one eye, so he had to visit the draft board in San Francisco to get an age exemption.

There may be more to your uncle's story of being rejected for enlistment.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/new-citizen-soldiers-naturalization

Do you realize our Second Lady is a first generation born American?

Her parents were immigrants. Should they be disqualified from having a daughter that is Second Lady? The obvious answer is no.

She's a great Second Lady. Stop with your race baiting bullshiit. You've gone from hating CEOs to hating Indians.

By the time my uncle was drafted it was no surprise to him, but the government had not yet made it legal. My grandfather was surprised and amused. They needed a lot of bodies and I suppose it has always been that way. p.s. My uncle was killed in Germany in April 1945.

Non-citizens working toward full US citizenship (for example, Green Card holders, who are lawful permanent residents) have been serving in our military for decades, often as a path to full citizenship. While non-citizens cannot serve in the US military (those here illegally, those here on temporaray Visas, etc), those who are already in the process toward citizenship can. They have to meet all enlistment criteria, including speaking English and meeting Ht/Wt and PT requirements, but they can certainly join our military if they choose to serve.

I observed a citizenship ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq in 2005 where service members who had been working toward citizenship while serving in the military had finally completed all requirements and were "sworn in" as US citizens while deployed to an active combat zone. It was a pretty cool event to see so many service members serving our country in the military in a combat zone becoming full US citizens.

At a time when less than 1% of the country has served since 9-11, thank God those people are willing to step up and serve alongside their fellow service memebrs who are already American citizens - especially when our country is at war.

AggieKatie2 said:

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This is nothing new.

I have an employee that was here on a green card. His relationship with the green card sponsor soured before renewal, and she refused to sign renewal.

Essentially, his only option was to join to military, which he did in order to stay in the US.

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"Nothing new" is not a good reason to keep doing something. We are in 2025. The dangers were not not as great in 1955 as they are in 2025.

The levels of espionage is off the charts. Russia and China want any information we can get. Years ago, I worked for this famous company that employed a lot of Chinese people in high places. It later came out that many of them had been sending tech IP back to China. The information was gone. The company eventually had to be broken up and exists today in a sad state, far removed from its iconic status. China just replicated what was developed here.

It is even more important now to keep certain positions for Americans only. I might be okay if foreigners joined the army and were on the front-lines where bombs were dropping. Let's see how brave these people are and how much they love the green card. Give it to them. But if you want to sit in an AC room and be a system administrator in a safe environment, then no.

Watch this avenue being exploited once it becomes more known.

I think those who have a problem with the general concept have a problem with immigration as a whole.

The biggest problems are the wokest DEI principles that caused straight, white American males (always the backbone of the American military) to abstain from joining or remaining in the military, and leadership that did not insist on integration into American culture. A Balkanized military would be a very, very bad thing.

Bulldog73 said:

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I think those who have a problem with the general concept have a problem with immigration as a whole.

The biggest problems are the wokest DEI principles that caused straight, white American males (always the backbone of the American military) to abstain from joining or remaining in the military, and leadership that did not insist on integration into American culture. A Balkanized military would be a very, very bad thing.

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Agreed. There are thousands of examples of immigrants with residence status who served not only honorably but heroically to include sacrificing their lives for the US.

We need to ensure, and I believe that Pete Hegseth is doing exactly this, that there is singular loyalty to the United States and that there will be zero accommodations for deviations for uniformity from traditional US military standards. No beards, no turbans, no cultural signatures. And you eat the same damn mystery meat in MREs and field rations that everyone else does.

I will add that during my son's boot camp graduation, a recruit in his 30s singled me out to tell me how much my son had helped him and how grateful he was to this country for providing this opportunity to serve, learn valuable skills, and expedite his path to citizenship. He was brought to tears and will be one of the most patriotic soldiers we have.

He has a young family and I don't think it can be stated enough the opportunities our military can provide in learning trades and skills and changing lives.

There is risk in bringing outsiders in but these people by and large joining our military are far from our biggest problem. Most are far more appreciative of our culture and ability to be a force for good in a world that many have witnessed the worst of.

I did not meet any foreigner in the US Army during my time in the Amry from 2006 to 2011, but these are the type of immigrants we would like to have.

A good friend from high school's father from the Phillipines was naturalized via the US Navy. He was one of the nicest, toughest, roughest, wildest men I have ever met. He became a Navy steward at like 11 or 12 years old. This was after WWII as he had lost most of his family during the Jap occupation. As a kid he participated in the Phillipine resistance and had burn scars to prove it.

He ended up in the States, got some schooling and was able to join US customs. While in customs he was selected for Customs Patrol which was the precursor of ICE. Primarily he did undercover work and lived an adventurous professional life. He was the lead undercover agent on the investigation that stopped F-14 parts being shipped to Iran via Mexico in the 80's and had all kinds of dust ups with the DTO's back then. My buddy and his mom had to move out of their house and kinda go to ground a couple of times in HS due to threats against him.

The coolest part was his daughter, a few years older than us, was a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader for a few seasons. It was too cool hobknobbing with her and her friend at 16 and 17 years old. She remains one of the most stunningly beautiful women I have ever known.

This guy was a certifiable bad ass. And was one of the biggest patriots I have ever met.

I went through basic in Fort Ord , Ca. In 1969 and met an Italian citizen with a green card who got drafted and sent to Vietnam Nam. Don't know if he survived Nam or whether he attained citizenship or not.
Yeah, I'm old.