During the second week of January, approximately 100 people took their oaths to become new citizens of the United States at a ceremony in Tukwila, Wash.  Right in the middle of them all, a single uniformed Sailor joined in.

A dental technician at Branch Medical Clinic Everett, the Republic of the Philippines-born Hospitalman Griffinjoy Villanueva became a full member of the nation she’d been helping protect since joining the Navy in August of 2006.

Villanueva said the process was a lot easier than she thought it would be, taking only a few months to complete once she started the process in September.

“I’d heard it would take a year or more,” she said “but it wasn’t even that.”

All told, it took only four months from filing to oath.  The process for Villanueva was sped up by her active duty status.  While she still had to meet the same requirements as a civilian seeking citizenship, including possession of a green card, her paperwork was submitted via the military which gave her a sort of ‘head of the line’ privilege.

The cap to the process was when the young sailor led the rest of the new citizens at her ceremony in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Villanueva said she was asked to lead the group because she was wearing her service uniform and added that leading the Pledge was the high point of the whole process for her. 

Born in the Republic of Philippines capital of Manila, Villanueva moved to the United States in 2004 to live with her father, Chief Hospital Corpsman Armin Villanueva, a Navy dental technician who was then stationed at Naval Hospital Oak Harbor.  The younger Villanueva decided to follow in her father’s footsteps, first by joining the Navy as a corpsman and then by becoming a dental technician.

Now that HA Villanueva has achieved citizenship, her father, currently stationed at Navy Hospital Naples Branch Dental Clinic, sees no limit to what she can achieve.

“It’s one of those things that you need to take care of before reaching the top,” he said.  “Achieving it shows initiative, dedication and loyalty to the Flag.”