Camp pendleton korean linguist8/8/2023 ![]() ![]() A Catholic organization provided him and other refugees a home for three months, which helped the refugees start a new life in America. In 2001, he traveled from Kenya to Belgium, then to New York City, before traveling to Kansas City, Mo., where he would live. Dekon also applied for permanent residence and a chance to earn citizenship in the United States.Īt 21 years old, Dekon was granted refugee status in America. There, he learned to speak English and Arabic, two languages that proved useful in his future. Crocodile attacks were common, Dekon said.ĭekon spent eight years at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. Many of the boys died along the way due to diseases and encounters with wild animals. The perilous journey took more than two months. So, the “Lost Boys” walked across eastern Africa to seek safety. But there was no transportation - and many didn’t have shoes. Thousands of displaced and orphaned boys, including Dekon, needed to move to a refugee camp in Kenya - more than 1,000 miles away. “So, now, we had to move - again,” Dekon said. The Ethiopian government was overthrown in 1991, and the new government didn’t want refugees in the country from South Sudan - siding with the government of northern Sudan.ĭekon, 12 years old at the time, learned that he couldn’t stay in the country. He said they all spoke a different dialect or language, so there was a lot of confusion when talking with others.Īt the time, the Ethiopian government accepted Sudanese refugees, but that soon changed. Dekon found himself in a camp in Ethiopia with many other boys from South Sudan. ![]() His parents died during the war - his mother when he was 2 years old and his father when he was 8 years old -leaving Dekon as an orphan.Īfter their villages were destroyed, many of South Sudan’s children, including Dekon, ran away and sought refuge in neighboring countries. “That is why I went to Ethiopia in 1989.” “If you were a male, you were killed, and if you were a female, they took you to the north,” Dekon said. ![]() Soldiers from the north attacked the people of South Sudan in 1983. The act was a violation of an agreement between the northern Islamic region and the Christian south. “There were no hospitals, there were no schools and many people were getting killed.”ĭekon said the war started when the Sudanese government decided to implement sharia, or Islamic religious, law. “When the war started, things changed,” Dekon said. DAW DEKONįor a refugee born in Panrieng, South Sudan, serving in the military meant protecting his new country from an all-too-familiar enemy.ĭaw Dekon, formerly known as Anderia Mayom, fled from his home in what is known today as South Sudan during Sudan’s civil war in the 1980s. While immigrants who serve come from different backgrounds and ethnicities, all have one goal in mind - obtaining U.S. Of those men and women, 11,069 troops were naturalized in ceremonies at overseas locations.įor some, military service means more than serving our country - it’s about becoming a part of it. Citizenship and Immigration Services had naturalized 109,321 service members since October 2001. citizens while in the service.Īs of 2015, U.S. Interestingly, of the 109,000 noncitizens who served, almost 92 percent, or more than 100,000, received citizenship while serving during the war.Īccording to the Migration Policy Institute, 31,000 immigrants who served during the Korean War became U.S. A Department of Justice document from October 1948 shows that more than 300,000 immigrants served during World War II. Dekon, an Army veteran, moved to Kansas City after spending his youth in eastern African refugee camps during civil war in his home country of South Sudan. ![]() military in a special category - oftentimes allowing for an expedited path to citizenship for those service men and women.ĭaw Dekon, a life member of VFW Post 7356 in Parkville, Mo., and a former South Sudanese refugee, sits at Union Station, located in Kansas City, Mo., in January. But, this country has always placed noncitizens who serve in the U.S. From the Revolutionary War to today’s military conflicts overseas, immigrants and noncitizens have been serving honorably in America’s military. ![]()
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