Quote:
Originally Posted by Suki
Now I'm curious as to why someone born in Spain would wanna join the US air force.
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Well, yes, I'm from Spain, born and raised, but I'm not Spanish, even though I was born in a Spanish hospital.
To sum it up as short as possible:
My mother was born in the Philippines before the Japanese invaded. My grandfather was the director of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (a Spanish bank) in Manila and was sent to Cebu City. Once the war was over, the family packed up and moved back to Spain (Donostia).
My father was born in Butte, Montana and joined the Air Force during the Korean War. He was stationed in Germany, then Libya, Morocco and finally the new AB in Torrejon, Spain.
They met at the base, since she got a job there because so few people spoke English, they hired her because she was raised with English in the P.I. They got married and had three kids. I have U.S. citizenship from birth, so that's how I can join the USAF. The rest of my family on my mother's side is Spanish, totally, since all my aunts and uncle changed their citizenship from Filipino to Spanish the minute they got back to Spain.
My name in Spain (under their naming system) would be Juan Braden Sainz Moyle Ascasibar....totally Basque....I lived downtown Madrid and grew up feeling more Spanish than American.
And while I am a fan of Real Madrid and remember going as a kid to the Santiago Bernabeu many times to watch games and eat "pipas", I am not as fervent a fan as my brother. I have no enemosity, even sports-related to el Barca and its fans....
