Serving the Country Not Quite Theirs

Joseph, the second-youngest child, carried a feeling in his heart, a restless sense of indebtedness. He became a cadet with the Prince William Volunteer Fire Department, but that didn't make the feeling go away.

He was beginning his senior year at Woodbridge High School when a jetliner crashed into the Pentagon. "I wanted to quit school at that moment to join the Army and go fight the bad guys," he says. A teacher persuaded him to wait until after graduation. Before long he was driving a tank in the streets of Baghdad.

"I don't regret him joining the Army; he got a lot of experience from it that made him much stronger and braver," says Hietha Brown, Joseph's father, who was once a captain in the Liberian militia.

The work of a tank driver in a combat zone seemed equal to the feeling in the young man's heart.

"People like us coming from disaster to a peaceful land, we should give back," Joseph Brown says. "I didn't have money to give. I gave myself."

As the war continues and potential recruits know they may be sent into combat, the number of noncitizen volunteers has been declining, adding to the military's overall recruiting woes. The annual number fell nearly 20 percent from 2001 to 2004, the Associated Press reported. As of last spring, 142 noncitizens had been killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan, 8 percent of the total -- a higher proportion than their representation in the military, according to the AP.

Those still signing up sound certain. Eric Jon, 30, of Rockville, who emigrated from China with his parents and sister when he was 14, joined the Army around the same time as Brown. He already had a bachelor's degree in accounting, so it wasn't for tuition money. Instead, Jon's motives sound a lot like Brown's.

"The motherland didn't treat us so well," Jon says one day after sharing a lunch of buffet Chinese with Brown. Jon became a citizen after enlisting but before going to Iraq. He was recently honorably discharged after being wounded. "I got so much benefit from this country. It's part of citizen duties. . . . It's something I felt from the bottom of my heart. I wanted to serve."

Sam Rocha, 25, of Gaithersburg, felt the allure of military culture while still in high school. He talked to recruiters, but his parents were reluctant. He convinced them that the American military was nothing like the Colombian army, especially because of all the education benefits. The family had emigrated when Rocha was 2.

He joined the Army Reserve in 1997 and was assigned to an engineering unit. The Army helped pay for a degree in international business that he has nearly finished. His mother's fears came true when the war started and Rocha's unit was assigned to build bridges during the sweep into Baghdad.

"I told my parents if I died fighting for the U.S., I still wanted to be buried in Colombia," says Rocha, a Colombian citizen who feels a dual loyalty. "I love Colombia. I admire the United States."

Riding in a convoy in the first days of the invasion, Rocha noted the poverty of the country and imagined that toppling the regime would help the common people. Now he's not so sure. "I don't want to talk bad, but I think it's a lot of politics," he says.

While recuperating from his wounds, Brown began volunteering to do computer work at the Department of Veterans Affairs. In January, when he is scheduled to be honorably discharged, that position will become a job. Instead of a career as an American soldier, the Liberian native envisions a future serving American veterans.

Now he is an American, too. In August, he and another wounded soldier recited the oath and became citizens in front of a two-star general. Because of his bad leg, Brown was told he could sit while swearing allegiance to the United States, but he insisted on standing. He leaned on a cane gripped with his left hand while he raised his right hand.

Brown's sergeant had been pressing him to become a citizen, but Brown put it off. He didn't understand why it was necessary. He already felt like an American. He didn't need a piece of paper. However, with his Army service about to end, his sergeant finally convinced him it was a step he should take. "The whole time I was smiling and smiling," Brown says. "I felt like they were making me a citizen twice for the country."