North Carolina
18 Marines become citizens in battleship ceremony in North Carolina
Eighteen extra Marines are actually residents of the nation they serve following a big naturalization ceremony Friday on a historic battleship moored in North Carolina.
The Marines hail from 14 totally different nations throughout 5 continents and are members of 1st Battalion, eighth Marines, in accordance with a information launch from the Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, primarily based 2nd Marine Division. The ceremony was one of many largest ever for a Marine infantry battalion, in accordance with the press launch.
The Marines swore their oaths of allegiance aboard the battleship North Carolina earlier than Choose Richard E. Myers II, chief decide for the Jap District of North Carolina, in accordance with the discharge.
“In the present day was an incredible likelihood to acknowledge a major occasion within the lives of those younger Marines,” Lt. Col. William Kerrigan, the Marines’ commanding officer, stated within the press launch. “They’ve already raised their arms and dedicated to defending this nation, with out even being U.S. residents. Now that they’ve earned their citizenship, I’m excited to see the place it takes them.”
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Now that the Marines are residents, they will serve in additional navy occupational specialties and search commissioning alternatives, in accordance with the discharge.
The positioning of the ceremony has a storied historical past: Commissioned in 1941, the battleship North Carolina earned 15 battle stars for its help of naval offensives within the Pacific throughout World Conflict II. It was decommissioned in 1947.
In 1962, the battleship grew to become a memorial to North Carolinians who served and died within the conflict.
The naturalization ceremony got here days earlier than the Home of Representatives handed laws that may make it simpler for service members and veterans to use for citizenship and more durable for the federal government to deport noncitizen veterans.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies has naturalized greater than 158,000 U.S. service members since 2002, and 10,600 within the final yr, in accordance with the company’s web site.
Irene Loewenson is a employees reporter for Marine Corps Occasions. She joined Army Occasions as an editorial fellow in August 2022. She is a graduate of Williams Faculty, the place she was the editor-in-chief of the scholar newspaper.