“It was our way of paying back our adopted country, defending it with our lives.”~Alexander Vindman, Interview with HIAS, 2020"People come to this country as immigrants and refugees and serve-- whether that be in service in uniform like Alex and I…

“The day I was eighteen, I was inducted into the military. And I actually became a citizen afterwards, in the military, in a place outside of Jacksonville, Florida, I was sworn into the—as an American citizen. I stayed in the military through basic…