U.S. marines rebuff Canadian applicant

Here's an article of a Canadian - Cameron Dopler from Nova Scotia - who tried enlisting in the USMC but got turned down. This article came out about 2 years ago in 2006.

HALIFAX - As long as he can remember, Cameron Dopler has wanted to be a United States marine. Last year, with the U.S. military facing a manpower crunch due to its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 19-year-old Nova Scotian figured the time was ripe to enlist.

But after six months of pleading with American military and immigration officials to let him join, Dopler has been turned down -- notwithstanding his willingness to help the war effort in Iraq -- because Canadian citizens can't serve in the U.S. military.

"Here's the Americans, low on manpower ... and here I come, a Canadian wanting to join, and they turn me away," he says.

"It doesn't make sense."

More than 200 American soldiers have fled to Canada in recent years to avoid being sent to Iraq. Last week, deserter Darrel Anderson returned to Kentucky to face disciplinary action for seeking refuge in Canada to avoid a second tour in Iraq.

Dopler is a rare example of the opposite phenomenon -- a Canadian eager to fight with U.S. forces in Iraq or Afghanistan, motivated in his case by the path of his American grandfather, a U.S. naval veteran who served in Korea and Vietnam.

"I'm not asking for much, just to be given the chance to serve, like my grandfather did before me, and so many others, including the thousands killed in the war on terror," he says.

After finishing high school last year in Halifax, Dopler travelled to Oklahoma to live with his grandfather and enlist. He says he was welcomed by a recruiting sergeant, but told he needed U.S. citizenship to sign up.

Dopler's mother is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen. She was born on the now-defunct American naval base in Argentia, Nfld., when Dopler's grandfather was based there in the 1960s, but because she hasn't lived on U.S. soil since she was a child, Dopler can't claim American citizenship through her.

7 comments:

  1. keep tryin... never give up. they gave me shit for being short to join the USMC infantry.. i never gave up after how many years.. im already out of the Marines.. and i love every moment of it.. Semper Fi..

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  2. i am like him ..i want to join the U.S. marines.

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  3. yea me too, i'm from jamaica but i dont have a green card jus a visa, and they turned me down when i called them ....

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  4. I don't know if this worth anything at this point, I was born and raised in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. October 15, 2001, I went south of the border, and used an American address, keep in mind, my uncle was living in the states, and at that point and time, it was pretty easy, the recruiter, accepted it, and next thing, I was standing on the yellow feet, I got out in 2009, I think about the time you started this. I look back, I was just like you, its something I've always wanted to do, but the downside, I lost my right leg, above the knee. I would do it all over again, and again.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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