Previous versions of this article stated incorrectly that 159 service members became U.S. citizens. Immigration officials naturalized 259 troops from 71 countries.
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Warriors for U.S. Become Its Citizens, Too
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The new rules allowed Army Spec. Sheikh Qaisar, 34, of Houston to become a citizen less than two years after he moved to the United States.
"I joined the Army the same month," said Qaisar, who was born in Pakistan and has been stationed in the city of Mosul since November. "I wanted to learn about the U.S. culture and system."
U.S. Army Spec. Myakol Mayom, 35, of Sioux Falls, S.D., who fled southern Sudan in 2001, said U.S. support for the people of his region, which was embroiled in a years-long civil war, allowed him to escape.
"When I came to the United States, I never felt like a refugee," said Mayom, holding a folded U.S. flag. "The U.S. saved my life. If I die tomorrow, I would die smiling because I did the right thing."
Eskharia's childhood neighborhood is a 20-minute drive from the military base where he became an American. He recalled the night in 1990 that his family crossed into Turkey. "We walked for 19 hours," he said. "We were very scared."
In Turkey, "we weren't treated very well," he said, remembering that food and showers were scarce.
His family settled near San Diego, where years later, working at a Blockbuster video store, he fell in love with Melissa, who managed a pizza parlor and became his wife. After meeting her brother, a Marine, he decided he wanted to join.
"I liked how he presented himself. He's very smart," said Eskharia, an engineer who has been working on infrastructure projects in Iraq.
He remembered swimming and fishing in Habbaniyah, a city in the western province of Anbar. He's now stationed near there. "The smell in the air has changed," he said. "It was a lot cleaner."
As he left the palace, his wife -- 10 time zones away in El Cajon, Calif. -- was getting ready for bed.
"I know how much it meant to him," Melissa Eskharia, 21, said in a telephone interview Saturday morning. "It meant more to him getting it in Baghdad."
