By It is incredible the bureaucracy and paperwork this guy went through to bring his wife over to the US legally:
When David Bloom of Los Angeles shipped to Iraq in 2005 with the U.S. Army Reserves, the last thing he expected to find there was a wife. But the first time he set eyes on an Iraqi woman named Zee, who worked for U.S. forces as a translator, Bloom told a buddy he was going to marry her one day.
Marriage, as we know, can be a complicated undertaking. All the more so when international complexities and military rules are thrown in.
Here now, just in time for Memorial Day, is the saga of Sgt. Bloom, 41, and 24-year-old Zee, who asked that I not use her last name because of concerns about her family’s safety in Iraq. [LA Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but it is amazing the difference between legal and illegal immigration.
9:37 pm on June 4th, 2010 1
Good news story (finally!) and a prime example of the military getting a hard on for the wrong reason and trying to screw the wrong person for just following the regulations and his heart. I hate when this happens and reminds me of the b.s. that that Marine's wife, had to go through because they didn't consumate the marriage prior to him dying in Iraq. Commanders of people like this need to take a good dose of commonsense, preferably given rectally so they can understand the unnecessary pain they cause others.
12:40 am on June 5th, 2010 2
Commanders and commonsense? Together?!! I never saw those two together in my twenty years of service. Officers have a class they go thru during their Captain years, where CS is removed. All officers have to attend this class a second time when they are assigned to Fort Hood.
To include Warrant Officers. 
9:56 am on June 5th, 2010 3
Not so sure. What requirements did the Iraqi's have? And what if the background check turned up uncle Festis with questionable ties to some unsavory types. Could have been a few followups perhaps? Not unreasonable. Then the marrige approved and stamped by both the Iraqi civil administration and the US consul. passport requirements, plane tickets, goodby party and its really quite an undertaking.
But neccessary
10:52 am on June 5th, 2010 4
I understand what you're saying Gerry, but the fact that the Army dug way back in his history to some missed training in a half-assed attempt to get him on something to justify their quest kills me.
1:22 pm on June 5th, 2010 5
You know, the armed forces made it just about as difficult to marry Japanese and Korean women at one time. If I'm not mistaken, there was an actual bar to such marriages. Same with Chinese when we had a presence on the mainland…
1:43 pm on June 5th, 2010 6
I think it was a good idea back in the day when you had to go through 2-3 months of red tape to get married in Korea. 95% of the time, after the soldier got the process rolling – he had already broken up with the girl by the time everything was finalized and approved. So a lot of would be failed marriages never got consummated because of that waiting period.
12:33 am on June 6th, 2010 7
I lived in a trailer park at Fort Polk owned by a Korean War vet. He told me he met his wife during the war and was not allowed to bring her to the states until 1957. His wife told me that when she got to the states it was difficult, no Koreans, no Kimchi, etc, but they toughed it out and were successful. They had 5 kids, all who went on to be successful. They were great Americans who have passed on.
8:13 am on July 1st, 2010 8
Thanks to all for your comments regarding the story of me and my wife. I would have understood an investigation into my marriage, but for years after I married her my command never even so much as asked me her name! Basically they had a hard-on for getting rid of me because I chose to follow my heart. I even cleared the marriage trip with my entire chain of command before leaving. Once the Brigade Comander found out about the marriage, he started a 15-6 investigation and then all of my commanders started folding like lawn chairs. They all acted like they knew nothing about it.
4:14 am on June 16th, 2011 9
She is also a terp and they are taking a huge risk every day with their family’s lives. Also she is a female terp and dating an american. What a daredevil!