Photo By Chief Warrant Officer Steven Hoskins | Spc. Erica Falmngar, a soldier with the 266th Movement Control Battalion, received her...... read more read more
By Lt. Col. Dan Lonowski
JSC-A Public Affairs Officer
KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan - Spc. Erica Falmngar has been a United States soldier for the past two and a half years. She is currently serving in Operation Enduring Freedom. Falmngar is defending the Constitution of the United States and playing a role in helping the Afghan people earn their own freedoms.
Falmngar has put her life on the line for her country, her new country.
Oct. 1, 2010, will be a date the 22-year-old soldier never forgets. On that date, Falmngar became a United States citizen as she took part in a naturalization ceremony. Becoming a United States citizen, Falmngar and 87 other service members serving on the battlefields of Afghanistan, realized their dreams.
On that date, all these service members at Kandahar Air Field and took the Oath of Allegiance. The oath allows service members who have lived in the United States and served, to become United States citizens.
“I am part of something great, something greater than myself,” Falmngar said after the ceremony. “This is a new beginning for me.”
Falmngar is a native of Micronesia, a country in the Pacific that has a “Compact of Free Association” with the United States.
The transport management coordinator has thought about becoming a citizen for many years. She said she also wanted to serve in the military. A member of the 266th Movement Control Battalion stationed at Fort Riley, Kan., Falmngar has been deployed to Kandahar since March.
The 266th MCB is a subordinate unit of the 419th Movement Control Battalion which falls under the Joint Sustainment Command-Afghanistan. The JSC-A conducted the ceremony.
The commanding general of the JSC-A, Brig. Gen. Reynold Hoover, addressed the service members.
“This is a great day to be an American, and an especially great day to become an American,” Hoover said. “It makes me proud to be a part of something so important.”
Maj. Gen. Timothy McHale, the deputy commander for Support, U.S. Forces Afghanistan was the keynote speaker for the event. He highlighted the sacrifices already made by the new citizens.
“You truly are representation of U.S. citizens,” McHale said. “You have already contributed to our country. You are daily risking your lives for freedom and safety of all Americans. You are also helping the people of Afghanistan.”
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services representative Steve Bucher read the oath of allegiance to the service members, representing 37 different countries. He, along with McHale and Hoover, awarded the certificate of U.S. Citizenship to the 88 service members.
For their part, the service members all serving in OEF, came from all parts of Afghanistan, spent the week in Kandahar completing paperwork and finishing interviews with USCIS members as part of the naturalization process.
“I want to live in the United States and have my own home someday,” Falmngar said. “It would be great to raise a family there someday.”
Falmngar said she would also like to someday bring her family to the U.S. She has six brothers and four sisters, as well as her mother and father who live in Yap.
One older brother, Francis, is also a U.S. soldier, stationed at Fort Carson, Col. Edisenhirosi Palik and Barvin Santer, both of Micronesia, also received their U.S. citizenship.
| Date Taken: | 10.01.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 10.05.2010 10:21 |
| Story ID: | 57533 |
| Location: | KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AF |
| Web Views: | 189 |
| Downloads: | 5 |
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