San Diego — Marine Cpl. David Antonio Garcia stood Thursday on the deck of an aircraft carrier and was sworn in as an American citizen -- after already serving under the U.S. flag in Iraq.
The native of Mexico was among 80 sailors and Marines from 25 countries -- from Canada to Syria -- who became citizens in a Veterans Day ceremony aboard the USS Midway, a reward for putting their lives on the line for their adopted country.
The ceremony, watched by more than 100 cheering relatives, came as the nation observed Veterans Day with about 160,000 troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan -- some of them locked in fierce house-to-house fighting in Fallujah.
"I wouldn't want to compare myself to World War veterans or Vietnam veterans," said Garcia, 21, who was with combat engineers who cleared the path for tanks to roll into Iraq. "But I feel some of what they must feel today. I know what it's like to leave loved ones and not to know if you will come back."
The citizenship ceremony was one of dozens of events held nationwide to celebrate Veterans Day, a holiday that has taken on added meaning in the last three years after wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Veterans were honored Thursday at ceremonies big and small, including a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Ceremony attended by President Bush.
Color guard members, from left, Karl Klonowski, Gregory Majesky, Joanna Rodney, and Grant Brewer, listen as President Bush speaks at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. "Some of tomorrow's veterans are in combat in Iraq at this hour," Bush said Thursday. "They have a clear mission: to defeat the terrorists and aid the rise of a free government that can defend itself. They are making us proud."
The war in Iraq was a dominant theme at the ceremonies. There are about 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq; the American death toll stands at more than 1,140.
Legal permanent residents of the United States had been allowed to join the military and seek citizenship after three years of active service. But in July 2002 President Bush signed an executive order allowing anyone on active duty after Sept. 11, 2001, to immediately apply for citizenship. There are about 31,000 noncitizens in the U.S. military.
On the other end of the country, dozens of veterans, some into their 80s, stood and applauded one of the nation's youngest Purple Heart recipients during a ceremony in North Charleston, S.C.
Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Riccio, 19, who was born on the Fourth of July and wanted to be a soldier from childhood, was wounded in June in Iraq when shrapnel from a mortar round passed through his brain. He survived but only after a Navy corpsman held his head together on a 30-mile drive to a first aid station.
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