WWII vet naturalized after nearly 70 years - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

WWII vet naturalized after nearly 70 years

RANDOLPH, Vt. — Harry Lee Reynolds loves America and has shown his affection for decades.

He fought in World War II, receiving the Bronze Star on the Pacific Island of Guadalcanal 65 years ago Wednesday. For years after returning from war, he flew the American flag in front of his home. He voted and served on juries.

Reynolds, 88, assumed he was an American citizen all those years. He wasn't.

"It came as a surprise," he said.

With help from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. and his own research, the problem has been resolved. But the mix-up was a bit unsettling for the retired Connecticut businessman who moved to Vermont 25 years ago.

Reynolds thought he became a citizen as a teenager, when his father became a citizen in 1940. But he learned two years ago — when he went to replace a Social Security card — that there was no record that he had been naturalized.

"I became a citizen when my father became a citizen, but they don't give the children any paperwork to prove it, and that is a problem," Reynolds said.

Problems like his aren't that unusual, especially since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when the government toughened many of its rules and laws. In some cases, people seeking travel documents or the paperwork needed to get government benefits find they never became citizens.

"We are seeing an increase in clients who thought all along they were United States citizens, and they probably are, they just don't have the documents to prove it," said Jean Tharpe, field office director in St. Albans for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Reynolds was born in Stanstead, Quebec, just across the border from Derby Line. His family moved to Massachusetts when he was a toddler where his father ran a paper business.

When Reynolds was in basic training in 1942, Army officials questioned his citizenship.

"They checked me out and said 'you are a citizen,'" he said. "Then I stayed in the Army."

After returning from the South Pacific, he got married, had two sons and worked as a distributor of flooring products.

He enjoyed all the trappings of citizenship. He was a regular voter. When he turned 65 he started receiving Social Security.

For Reynolds to derive his citizenship through his parents, both would have had to have been naturalized before he became an adult, Tharpe said. Reynolds' mother didn't become a citizen until the 1950s.

"He had been told repeatedly he was a United States citizen so he just assumed that he was," Tharpe said.

During the early years of the last century, many people moved into the U.S. from Canada with few or no immigration formalities, Tharpe said.

"We have 86, 89, 90-year old people coming in here thinking that all their lives they were United States citizens when in fact they weren't," she said. "We do our best to provide them with all the information they need to set the record straight."

In some cases, when a person can show they've been in the U.S. for decades they're eligible for legal residence and eventual citizenship.

When spoke to Leahy's office, he had plenty of documentation: newspaper clippings about his wartime service, his Army discharge papers, decades worth of tax returns and receipts for life insurance payments.

It took just under two years, but Reynolds' case was relatively simple. His military service made him eligible for citizenship, Tharpe said.

In June Reynolds was told to go the citizenship office in St. Albans. He figured he would be taking a citizenship test. Instead, he was offered the opportunity to take the citizenship oath on the spot. He could have waited for a larger naturalization ceremony, but he did it then.

Everyone in the office cheered after he took the oath, said his wife, Edith. As Reynolds sees it, the oath was just a formality.

"I've always been a citizen and I'm getting the citizenship papers now," he said.