Iwo Jima Flag Raiser Finally Gets Citizenship Papers

[marinemom]

Naturalized Citizen Never Received Documents

POSTED: 1:01 pm EDT July 29, 2008
UPDATED: 1:19 pm EDT July 29, 2008


ARLINGTON, Va. -- A seven-decade oversight involving one of the men who raised the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima has been officially corrected.

Immigration authorities on Tuesday presented a posthumous certificate of citizenship to Marine Sgt. Michael Strank.

Strank was born in Czechoslovakia and came to the United States in 1922 at age 3. He was naturalized in 1935, when his father became a citizen, but immigration authorities never presented Strank his papers.

At the ceremony at the Iwo Jima memorial in Arlington, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director Jonathan Scharfen presented the certificate to Strank's sister, Mary Pero.

Pero said the family was surprised to find out that her brother, who lived near Johnstown, Pa., had never officially received the papers.



About time -

[jetdoc]

Interesting, I never knew that Sgt Strank was born overseas.

[sscjoe]

Congrats ,posthumously, to Sgt Stark.

[CplKJSpevak]

Interesting, I never knew that Sgt Strank was born overseas.

I did, I researched them all after I saw "Flags of our Fathers" gotta love the web........Ron, By the way what did you think of that movie?

[jetdoc]

I did, I researched them all after I saw "Flags of our Fathers" gotta love the web........Ron, By the way what did you think of that movie?

Read the book, didn't see the movie....yet.

[Hercules1944]

http://www.mdva.state.mn.us/CharlesLindberg.htm

The last survivor of both flag raisings.

[Hercules1944]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Ignatowski

A little more info on DOCS friend "Iggy".