Decorated Vietnam Veteran Seeks Citizenship as End of Life Draws Near

[TomSea]

Decorated Vietnam Veteran Seeks Citizenship as End of Life Draws Near

When Werner Trei received his draft letter soon after graduating from Lincoln High in Lincoln, Neb. in 1968, he never considered opting out due to his status as a German citizen. Having immigrated to the United States when he was just 2 years old, he considered himself an American and therefore saw military service as his duty.

That sense of service, however, has never been rewarded by the United States granting him citizenship. Now 71 and suffering from a slew of health problems in hospice care, he's worried it never will be.

While the military used to award citizenship to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who fought in wars dating back to the American Revolution, it ceased to do so following the Korean War. Today, veterans can expedite their naturalization process if they file their application within six months of retiring from the military, but following the Vietnam War, when support for the troops was at historic lows, Trei received no assistance.

Trei was no ordinary solder either. Not only did he sign up to be an Army Ranger with the airborne 75th Ranger Infantry Regiment, which headed up reconnaissance missions deep behind enemy lines and saw some of the toughest action of the war, but as the shortest man in his squadron, Trei was assigned to be a tunnel rat.

Read more at: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/05/02/decorated-vietnam-veteran-seeks-citizenship-end-life-draws-near.html

[corbe]

   Thanks for posting this @TomSea

[sneakypete]

Trei was no ordinary solder either. Not only did he sign up to be an Army Ranger with the airborne 75th Ranger Infantry Regiment, which headed up reconnaissance missions deep behind enemy lines and saw some of the toughest action of the war, but as the shortest man in his squadron, Trei was assigned to be a tunnel rat.

@TomSea

The army re-activated the 75th Rangers for VN duty? AFAIK,there were no active Ranger units during the VN war. The Army started calling reconnaissance platoons assigned to conventional units "Rangers",but they weren't. They were just LRRP teams. Back then the only way enlisted swine could get to go to Ranger School was to re-enlist with Ranger School as a guarantee. Otherwise it was all-officer.