A Delaware-based National Guardsman, Jun Cho was deployed to Washington, D.C., following the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. This meant he would have to miss his naturalization ceremony, which was scheduled to take place in Philadelphia.
Learning about Cho’s predicament, a Colorado congressman arranged a special ceremony for Cho, who serves with the 262nd Heavy Equipment Maintenance Repair Company.
“I feel great that I get to become an American,” he said. “I’m so proud to be Korean and I’m proud to be American as well, and to be a part of the U.S. Army.”
Cho said his dad used to tell stories from his service in the Korean army and his two older brothers joined the U.S. Army, so he knew he would follow in their footsteps. Not yet a citizen, he was ineligible for most scholarships, so joining the National Guard lifted the financial burden from his immigrant parents, who run a dry-cleaning business. Cho is majoring in economics at the University of Delaware, where he is a member of the ROTC.
He became a U.S. citizen in January, in a nearly empty room not far from the U.S. Capitol building he was protecting. “Thank you to my parents for taking the chance and flying over here to give their children a better life,” he said. “To all my friends out there, I just want to say, thank you, because it’s hard being an immigrant and they just treated me like family.”
During the ceremony, Cho took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic — a pledge that had already been put to the test for the young national guardsman by first-hand experience.
