Lance Cpl. Wing Chan, a Chinese citizen living in the United States, stands at attention Monday with fellow Marines during a fitness drill at Living Support Area 7 in Kuwait. Chan is among tens of thousands of noncitizens on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces. (Andrew Cutraro/P-D)

LIVING SUPPORT AREA 7, Kuwait - Their names are Addo, Chan, Bermuderzoa, Morontaespnal, Yoeurth, Villegas, Rosales, Gatchalian, Tulmau, Soponmazariegas, Jaruchik and La.

They are citizens of Ghana, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Mexico, El Salvador, the Philippines, Palau, Guatemala, Spain and Vietnam.

All are U.S. Marines, all stationed here at the U.S. military's closest base to the Iraqi border and all in position to fight - and possibly to die - for America.

Noncitizens have fought in nearly every U.S. conflict since the birth of the nation, including the Revolutionary and Civil wars. If President George W. Bush orders a U.S. invasion of Iraq, this war will be no different.

As of last April, more than 31,000 noncitizens were on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, just more than 2 percent of the total force of almost 1.4 million. More than 22,000 of them serve in the Navy and Marines, the two services most open to noncitizens. Permanent U.S. residency is the primary requirement.

Like other U.S. military personnel who are not yet citizens, these Marines came to the United States through a variety of means and for a variety of reasons.

Lance Cpl. Rithy Yoeurth's family fled Cambodia nearly two decades ago to escape the Khmer Rouge. His family went first to Thailand, then the Philippines, and landed in Utica, N.Y., before settling in Long Beach, Calif., when Yoeurth, now 22, was 4 years old.

Lance Cpl. Duc La's parents left Vietnam because they didn't want him to be drafted into the Vietnamese Army. Lance Cpl. Jacob Addo left Ghana for New York City three years ago in search of his father, who worked in a hospital in the city where he has lived since 1975.

Most came to the United States as children with their parents, but a few, like Lance Cpl. Yakovlev Stanislav, 28, of Russia, and Navy Hospital Corpsman Marco Weygan, 20, of the Philippines, came as adults in search of better lives. For them, military service was part of that process. Less than six months after the two landed in America, they joined the service.

"I wanted to learn as much as I can, as fast as I can," said Weygan, who settled in San Francisco. "What better way to meet people from the states than through the Marine Corps? It's been fun."

But now they all face the prospect of fighting for a country of which they are not yet citizens, though many of them have already applied for citizenship.

"I don't care what anybody says, I am a citizen now," said Lance Cpl. Wing Chan, 21, whose family came to the United States in 1994 from Canton, China. "When I first came here, I felt like, 'This sucks.' My parents didn't say anything. They just brought us here. But I joined the military. I am a Marine. I think I am a citizen."

Pfc. Jimmy Morontaespnal, 20, who moved to the Bronx, a borough of New York City, from the Dominican Republic when he was 12, is still waiting for his citizenship papers to be completed.

"That doesn't matter now," he said. "I wanted to serve my country. I live in this country. I guess I owe them something. The rest of my family lives here. If I'm not dying for the country, I'm dying for them."

Lt. Col. Michael Belcher, who has at least 20 noncitizens serving in his battalion, says they are at least as good as any other Marines.

"They're a benefit in that a lot of them - Koreans, Filipinos, South Americans - bring language skills and a different perspective that is very helpful," said Belcher, a Washington native and veteran of the Persian Gulf War. "They're fully capable and do a great job.

"When I was a company commander, I found that many of them would try twice as hard because they were trying to make a name for themselves and to get their citizenship."

Many joined the Marine Corps for the same reasons as their American counterparts:

They were drifting.

"I was in college, but I was bored," said Lance Cpl. Van Tulmau, 21, who moved to the United States three years ago from Palau, near Guam. "So, I just went into the recruiting station and joined."

They felt they needed discipline, and they heard the Marines were a challenge.

"It was the movies," said Cpl. Jose Rosales, 21, who moved to El Monte, Calif., from El Salvador. "They were the toughest, the best. I didn't even think about the other services."

They needed help getting into college.

"I'm going to get out and go to college and try to be a cop," said Cpl. Abraham Jaruchik, 21, who moved from Girona, Spain, to Rockford, Ill., six years ago.

They felt a need to serve.

"I wanted to help out the nation," Lance Cpl. Alfonso Sifuentes, 19, of Torreon, Mexico. "They let me stay here, and I wanted to help them out."

For some, the memory of Sept. 11 is not far away.

Lance Cpl. Mervin Roxas, originally of Manila, the Philippines, was on his way to class at Golden West Community College in Orange County in the Los Angeles area when he heard that terrorists had plowed planes into the World Trade Center.

"I wanted to do something," said Roxas, 19. "A couple of months later, a recruiter came to class, and after I talked to him, well, the rest is history."