Immigrants have proud history of military service

Foreign-born soldiers have served in our military since the Revolutionary War and many have died there. The number of immigrants serving now would surprise many people, especially the people who say we don't need immigrants and they should all go home. - - Donna Poisl

by SAMANTHA HENRY, The Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. - The first foreign country that Christian Bueno-Galdos ever traveled to was the United States, where he moved when he was 7. The second was Iraq, where he was killed this month serving under the U.S. flag.

Bueno-Galdos, a U.S. Army sergeant originally from Peru, was one of about 31,000 foreign-born soldiers now in U.S. armed forces , about 1.5 percent of the military , according to the Defense Department. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the department says about 150 immigrants have been killed while serving. Several among them, including Bueno-Galdos, lived in New Jersey.

His father, Carlos Bueno, said the family struggled to decide where to bury their son: in the Peruvian homeland he cherished or in the country he felt a patriotism for that lead him to the Army right out of high school.
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