BAGHDAD — U.S. soldiers and Marines filed into the marble hall of Saddam Hussein's former Al Faw Palace on Independence Day as foreigners at home as well as here. But they left the room as American citizens.
Standing under a glittering chandelier, 161 service members took the oath of citizenship Wednesday, the largest group to be naturalized at once in Iraq since the conflict began in March 2003. The mostly young, mostly male troops with last names such as Toledo and Serrano stitched across the backs of their caps vowed to "support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America against all enemies," an abstract promise with a deeper daily meaning here.
"You chose to endure the same sacrifices as your fellow comrades in arms to preserve the freedom of a land that was not yet fully yours," Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, military commander in Iraq, told the gathering in Baghdad. "It is the greatest of honors to soldier with you."
About 800 personnel filled the room, including 585 service members reenlisting as part of the ceremony, with onlookers straining to see from crowded balconies and stairwells. Among them were presidential contender Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), both veterans, who flew in for the occasion.
Near the front of the hall, Pfc. Mark Ayson, with a black brace on one wrist and an M-4 rifle slung across his back, had tears in his eyes.
Ayson, 26, of Pensacola, Fla., was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was 8. Less than a week before the ceremony, he was riding in a Humvee that was hit by a copper-plated explosive in the north Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiya. A fellow soldier lost a his leg in the attack, but Ayson escaped with damaged eardrums, shrapnel in his right leg and a bruised left wrist. He was back to work within 72 hours.
Ayson said the experience underlines why he joined the Army, came to Iraq nearly a year ago and became a citizen on Wednesday.
"We're fighting for a cause," he said.
A large contingent of Mexican Americans from California milled around carrying U.S. flags, a gift from the government, along with their new citizenship certificates and pieces of red, white and blue sheet cake.
Pfc. Cecilia Rodriguez, 19, of Fresno, immigrated to California in 1997 from the town of Pastor Ortiz in the Mexican state of Michoacan. Her parents, two sisters and a brother are legal U.S. residents, but Rodriguez is the first in her family to become a citizen.
