Tyndall Airman becomes U.S. citizen

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Benjamin Rojek
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) --  A revolt, a family separated and a little girl who grew up to become a defender of freedom in a foreign land.

It may sound like a big-budget Hollywood flick, but for one Airman, this is real life.

Airman 1st Class Celene Delice, a relocations technician with the 325th Mission Support Squadron here, was born in Bainet, Haiti, in 1982. She was 2 years old when President Jean-Claude Duvalier’s rule was coming to a close. The people were revolting against President Duvalier’s corrupt dealings and political repression. Airman Delice’s father, a captain in the Haitian army, and mother, a clothing factory employee, decided it was time to leave.

“My mother got a visa and came to Florida,” Airman Delice said. “My father stayed in Haiti a couple of more weeks to retire from the service, and then he joined my mother.”

The Delices wanted to get all six of their children, two boys and four girls, out of Haiti together, Airman Delice said, but they knew it would take some time. Therefore, they sent their three youngest children, including Airman Delice, to Le Village, a boarding school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

“The school was run by Germans,” she said. “We were not affected by the outside. On campus, we had houses, a school, a hospital and a church. It was a better way to get an education.”

The three older children were sent to live with relatives and friends of the family, Airman Delice said. Her oldest sister would come to visit, often bringing audio tapes their mother had sent to keep in touch with the children.

“Visiting hours were on Sundays,” she said. “My oldest sister would bring the tape, and we would listen to it. We would record our voices and send it back. That’s how we communicated.”

Fifteen years passed, with their mother coming to visit three times, she said. Airman Delice, the youngest, was 17 years old, and her oldest sibling was 28 when their parents were finally able to bring them to the U.S. The family would be together again, but Airman Delice was going to one family and leaving another.

“The funny thing is that after living there in the boarding school for so long, my family was the people I lived with,” Airman Delice said.

“When I came (to Florida), I was trying to get to know my real parents,” she said. “I know they sacrificed a lot for us to come here, and it was great to finally be with them, but it felt like I was losing my family at the same time.”

Even though it was hard leaving, the high-school graduate decided to make the best of it and go to college.

She was accepted at Nova Southeastern University, a private college in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The $21,000-per-year price tag began to hurt, she said, and she had to take student loans.

However, that all ended with her father’s injury and a business closure.

“My father was installing a (skylight), and he fell from the top of the building,” Airman Delice said. “He broke a bone in his back.”

Her mother lost her job at a men’s clothing store when the business shut down, she said.

“My parents were unable to cosign with me on student loans because they were both out of work,” she said.

She had to leave school, but one day, while surfing the Internet, Airman Delice came across a military recruitment advertisement discussing the benefits of military service.

“I thought, ‘Well, I don’t have anything to lose,’” she said. “I wanted to go to school, and they had those benefits.”

Airman Delice enlisted in early 2004.

She recently became a U.S. citizen and was sworn in at a ceremony at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., with 125 other servicemembers.

“I am very excited to have become a citizen,” she said. “Now I can vote and enjoy all the benefits of being a citizen.”

One of those benefits is being able to become an Air Force officer.

She said her next goal is to finish her bachelor’s degree and get commissioned. Once she is an officer, she said she plans to apply to law school.

“My long-term goal is to become an Air Force lawyer,” she said. “I want to help people.” (Courtesy of Air Education and Training Command News Service)