This gives me warm fuzzies: new citizens in the military
 

Sailors become U.S. citizens

A pity the online edition didn't include the pictures. Above the fold was a nice shot of Nigerian-born Petty Officer Third Class Olatunde Lawal, having taken the oath of citizenship, pledging allegiance to the flag and the Republic for which it stands.

Another photo the paper edition had a Croatian-born Petty Officer Second Class with about twelve years' service time on her record -- the one Croatian-born citizen in the bunch.

It's the first time we've done anything like this on this base.

What's your take on this?

That the military is moving to attract more people that are foreign born?

Maybe that there's a shortage of volunteers in the citizenry?

It seems that this type of service for citizenship is not new but that the timeline has changed. Is that your point?

That's one bit of it, yeah. It seems right that that effort at commitment should be suitably rewarded as a fast -- not dizzying -- track to citizenship. A military perk, in a job that doesn't have a huge pile of perquisites.

I don't reckon there's any severe shortage of volunteers, though recruiters' lives aren't as easy as they were following 9/11, when I think they really had to resort to quite a lot of Delayed Entry Program -- sign up now to go in up to half a year later.

Good for the Petty Officer. It feels a little like the Roman Empire, but we owe these guys.

We had a training at work a week ago and it came out that this lovely Iranian woman we work with was leaving early to take her oath. Spontaneous standing ovation.

Our military has a long history of being filled with non-citizens. The most notable is the US Navy and the number of people from the Philippines who have joined since WW2.

A large number indeed, under the provisions of a treaty. It's one of the larger streams of immigrants from the Philippines by the time family comes in. Lots of Pinoy spoken around Navy towns, and Filipinos in clerical and mess ratings are new Navy recruits' first exposure to these guys and their distinctive, strangely musical, accents.