Citizenship by choice: Alfred Rascon. (Military Heritage).

Most of us in the Military Intelligence community were born in the United States where our citizenship is automatic. However, when do we choose to accept the responsibility for our citizenship by taking on the duties of defending our freedom and democratic process? Perhaps it occurs when we travel overseas and witness the alternatives to democracy, or when we read intelligence reports or hear survivor accounts of repression and strife in other countries. Do we choose to become actively involved when we compare our national ethos with that of others and conclude that the freedoms we experience in the United States outweigh the flaws?

Alfred Rascon was always involved. He was always "American by choice." Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, he immigrated with his family to Oxnard, California, where he attended school and grew up thinking he was an American. After graduating from high school in 1963, Rascon joined the Army.

It was only when he enlisted that Alfred Rascon discovered that because he was born in Mexico, he was not an American citizen. Even so, the U.S. Army accepted him, trained him as airborne and a combat medic, and assigned him to 1st Battalion, 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173d Airborne Brigade (Separate).

In May 1965, Alfred Rascon went to Vietnam to serve with the Reconnaissance Platoon of the 1st Battalion, 1 73d Airborne Brigade, 503d PIR. He was first wounded in September 1965 on a mission with his Reconnaissance Platoon. Refusing evacuation, he treated five injured soldiers.

In March 1966, as part of Operation SILVER CITY, the 173d Brigade was clearing enemy forces from the Song Be River area in Long Khanh Province. On 16 March, Specialist Four Rascon's reconnaissance platoon was called to assist the 2d Battalion, which had been surrounded by a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regiment. Advancing through the jungle, the platoon was attacked and suffered a number of casualties including SP4 Rascon. Though shot in the hip and wounded by grenade fragments, he immediately treated his fellow soldiers; then, under grenade attack, he used his own body as a shield to protect two soldiers. Both times he suffered additional injuries. Later in the engagement, despite guidance to pull back and in the face of advancing NVA soldiers, he recovered the platoon's M-60 machine gun and ammunition, which allowed his platoon to hold its position. SP4 Rascon then returned to care for the wounded and had to be forcibly dragged to the medical evacuation area by his fellow soldiers after the firefight. Rascon's wounds were so severe, he was given the last rites but he eventually recovered.

After Vietnam, he earned a college degree and became a naturalized United States citizen. In 1969, he applied for Officer Candidate School and earned a commission as an Infantry officer. He graduated from the Special Forces Qualification Course and the Defense Language Institute (German). He had follow-on ordersforan airborne unit in Germany but the Army inexplicably diverted him at the last minute to the 470th MI Group in Panama. There he served as the Assistant Adjutant, an Area Intelligence Officer, and later commanded a Special Forces Ml Detachment assigned to the 470th. As a result of this assignment, he received orders transferring him to Military Intelligence Branch.

In 1972, Rascon volunteered to return to Vietnam. This time, he served as an advisor to an Ml unit of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).

From 1974 to 1984, he served in the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), attended the Military Intelligence Officer Advanced Course at Fort Huachuca, then returned to the 470th MI Group as an intelligence liaison officer and Detachment A Commander. He left the Army in 1984, having most honorably fulfilled his responsibilities as a U.S. citizen.

Alfred Rascon, however, was not finished serving his country. He dedicated the next ten years to developing intelligence resources for the Justice Department, starting in the Intelligence Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). He later transferred, accepting a promotion, and established the first intelligence unit at the United States National Central Bureau (USNCB), the U.S. office of the International Police Organization (INTERPOL). His next promotion moved him into the Intelligence Division of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) where he helped establish the Intelligence and Analysis Branch. He next served as the Senior Special Agent in Charge of Overseas Operations for the Anti-Smuggling Branch of the INS. Later, he returned to the Intelligence Division and served as the Senior Intelligence Operations Officer. In 1995, he became the Inspector General of the Selective Service, a position he held until his retirement in 2001.

This time, it was the United States which was not done with Alfred Rascon. Three months into his retirement, President George W. Bush asked him to accept a Political Appointee-Senate (PAS) confirmed position. His name went forward to the Senate Armed Services Committee with those of the proposed Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. He was immediately confirmed without opposition. Now the Honorable Alfred Rascon, he continues to serve the nation as the Director of the Selective Service, with a rank equivalency of Lieutenant General.

In 1994, Alfred Rascon attended a reunion of the 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment where a comrade in arms, former Sergeant Ray Compton, asked him how it felt to be a Medal of Honor winner. Rascon said he did not know, since he had not received anything. Ray Compton told him that after the second action in which he was wounded, nomination paperwork for the award of the Congressional Medal of Honor (CMH) went forward. Ray thought that Rascon had received it and was shocked when Alfred stated that he had not It took five more years, but Ray Compton and others from the reconnaissance platoon were able to have this oversight corrected, and in 1999, the Secretary of Defense approved the nation's highest combat award for Alfred Rascon's heroic actions in Vietnam.

On 8 February 2000, President Bill Clinton draped the Medal of Honor around Alfred Rascon's neck. He said, 'Thank you for reminding us that being an American has nothing to do with the place of your birth, the color of your skin, the language of your parents, or the way you worship God."

Alfred Rascon did not automatically obtain his American citizenship. When his family immigrated here, he says he was Just a poor kid, brought up with nothing... (who) lived in the house behind the big house. However, Alfred Rascon voluntarily took on the duties of citizenship. He chose to sacrifice his personal safety to protect his buddies in Vietnam, and he chose to become an officer and be responsible for the lives of other men. He chose to go back to Vietnam, and later chose to continue serving our nation in ever-increasing levels of responsibility. For almost four decades, Alfred Rascon's purposeful service has defined what being an American is all about. It is to be American by choice.

Kate Schmidli is the curator for the u.s. Army Military Intelligence Museum at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. She is a retired MI First Sergeant whose first goal is the preservaf/on of MI Corps heritage and soldier histories. The museum is open seven days per week, from 9:00 to 4:00 weekdays and from 1:00 to 4:00 on weekends. Readers may contact her via E-mail at [e-mail] and telephonically at [phone] or DSN 821-1107