Soldier Dies While Waiting

[Gregory Matthews]

The U.S. military has a program in which non-citizen people may enlist in the military and receive expedited citizenship.  In one aspect of this program, non-citizens with critical skills essential to the military mission are allowed to enlist and begin training.  But, they must undergo a final clearance before being assigned to their duty station.

This soldier enlisted under the provisions of  this program due to the fact that he was judged to  have skills critical to the mission.   However, with the current climate, his processing to clear him for assignment to his duty station was taking a long time.   As a matter of fact, on the day of his death he had waited for 336 days to be cleared.

NOTE:  He died while undergoing physical training.

See:

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/04/19/immigrant-soldier-dies-waiting-for-us-military-to-clear-him-to-serve/

 

[Gregory Matthews]

In a news release today, the U.S. Customs and Immigration has announced that this soldier had become a naturalized U.S. citizen several months prior to his death!

 

 

Now an investigation has been launched in an attempt to determine why  he had not been cleared for his scheduled assignment.

 

 

[phkrause]

Sad, very sad indeed!!