Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part XVI

Simon, Theodore and Alvin belting it out for you.

Fifteen new American citizens

I got a Facebook account when my younger daughter was in Basic Combat Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina; the Army used Facebook as its method of providing photos and updates to the families of soldiers in BCT. Because I “liked” the 1^st Battalion, 61^st Infantry Regiment “Roadrunners,” I still get the updates from my daughter’s BCT unit.

Occasionally I’ll look back, and I discovered that, on Wednesday, 14 December 2011, fifteen soldiers, completing their Basic Combat Training, also became fifteen new American citizens.

Fifteen new American citizens

Immigrants in the United States legally can apply for an accelerated path toward citizenship if they are in the armed services. During my older daughter’s graduation ceremonies from BCT, the speaker announced that one of the graduates had just completed his third basic training: first for the Iraqi Republican Guard, when Saddam Hussein still ruled, then again for the Iraqi Army after liberation, and finally, in April of 2009, Basic Combat Training with the United States Army.

I salute our new citizens!