Iwo Jima flag raiser gets citizenship papers

[douglas9]

Source: Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- For more than 60 years the Marine Corps has proudly told the story of Sgt. Michael Strank and the five other warriors who raised the flag at Iwo Jima.

Turns out they were telling part of the story all wrong.

A 73-year oversight was rectified Tuesday when immigration authorities posthumously presented citizenship papers to a relative of Strank, the oldest of the six flag raisers and the first to be killed in combat as the Iwo Jima battle raged on.

The ceremony set the record straight on the citizenship of Strank, a native of Jarabenia, Czechoslovakia, who came to the United States in 1922 at age 3.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IWO_JIMA_CITIZENSHIP?SITE=PAYOK&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[LostinVA]

1. Damned Illegals -- taking away our jobs

Betcha an American boy would have done that job better -- and faster!

Thanks for the article -- very interesting!

[The Croquist]

2. I know you're kidding...

but he was not an illegal alien. "Strank became a citizen automatically in 1935 when his father, Vasil, was naturalized. But authorities never gave the son his own certificate of citizenship." The official records simply did not record this fact.

He was also at least every bit as American as you and certainly more so then me.