As we approach yet another Veterans Day and as I have done during the last quarter of a century, I want to once again express my respect and appreciation to the men and women who have proudly served before me –- for generations — alongside me, and after me in the U.S. Armed Forces.
In my writings about Veterans, I have periodically singled out those who, like me, emigrated to the United States and subsequently served in our military.
This Veterans Day, I would like to highlight Veterans of Norwegian origin. The reason will hopefully become clear when one reads on.
In January 2018, during his first term as president, while discussing immigration issues, Trump reportedly derided immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as coming from “shithole countries.”
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?,” Trump is reported to have asked.
Trump also suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he had recently met.
Shortly thereafter, in reaction to Trump’s remarks, Dan Lamothe at the Washington Post authored a superb article, “U.S. military history is rich with immigrants who left the countries Trump disparaged and sacrificed in combat.”
In the story, Lamothe describes aspects of the bloody Sept. 8, 2009, battle in Kunar Province’s village of Ganjgal, “a battle which is one of the U.S. military’s most traumatic in the long war in Afghanistan,” a battle where five U.S. service members were killed, and “how the U.S. military is a kaleidoscope of cultures, races and religions, with units pulling together to meet common goals under occasionally brutal circumstances.”
Prompted or, shall we say, provoked by this event, and inspired by Lamothe’s article, this writer –- a few days later — penned a piece titled “Military Heroes from ‘Non-Norwegian’ Countries.”
In it, this writer highlights some of the examples provided by Lamothe of the extensive combat service of and sacrifice by military personnel immigrating from countries and regions disparaged by Trump.
• Marine Maj. Ademola Fabayo (then a first lieutenant) from the “shithole country” of Nigeria who, in Sept. 2009, during a bloody battle in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, at the risk of his own life maneuvered through a kill zone and helped recover a wounded comrade. For his act of combat valor, Fabayo was awarded the Navy Cross – second only to the Medal of Honor.
• Then-Marine Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, from Mexico (another country often maligned by Trump), who, during the same battle, risked his life four times in attempts to reach missing Marines. For his valor, Rodriguez-Chavez was also awarded the Navy Cross.
Both the Post and this writer provided additional examples of immigrants from so-called “shithole countries” who have “embraced, enriched and enabled America.”
Finally, the Post article points out that, at the time of Trump’s remarks, there were more than 511,000 foreign-born U.S. veterans, many of them from countries maligned by Trump.
More recent statistics from the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services and from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), respectively, indicate that nearly 50,000 foreign nationals were serving in active and reserve components of the Armed Forces and that there are more than 700,000 foreign-born veterans living in the United States.
Since 2020, the top five countries of birth of naturalized service members are the Philippines, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, and Ghana, followed closely by Haiti, China, Cameroon, Vietnam, and South Korea…several of these disparaged by Trump at one time or another.
Throughout U.S. history, immigrants have served with bravery and distinction and have received the most prestigious military honors, including the nation’s highest award for military valor in action: More than 760 Medal of Honor recipients – more than 20 percent of the 3,536 Medal of Honor recipients — are immigrants, foreign-born.
One of those countries, with nineteen of its U.S. immigrants recipients of the Medal of Honor, is Norway. One of the recipients, Sergeant Reidar Waaler is featured in the lead image. Another Norwegian-born recipient is Oslo native Louis Williams, born Ludwig Andreas Olsen, who is only one of nineteen service members to have ever received the Medal of Honor twice. Williams received the Medal for heroic actions during the period 1871-1899.
A founding member of NATO and a staunch strategic partner to the United States, Norway has significantly contributed to U.S-Allied military missions, including in Afghanistan. Over the course of that war, Norway deployed more than 9,000 military personnel and lost ten of its service members.
It thus makes sense that a President of the United States would welcome immigrants from a country “such as Norway,” as Trump did in 2018, and as was mentioned earlier.
However, eight years later and after repeated denials to Trump of the coveted Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Trump reversed his stance on Norway.
Two weeks after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a South African human rights lawyer, for her efforts to promote peace and international law, Trump added Norway to his growing list of “shithole countries.”
During an October 22 campaign rally in Port Huron, Mich., Trump said, “Frankly, Norway sucks…Norway has become a shithole country, actually,” linking his sudden dislike for Norway to his failure to become a Nobel Peace Prize laureate in spite of his repeated claim that he has settled eight wars.
According to the New York Times, “[Trump] suggested that the United States should accept fewer Norwegian immigrants, saying, ‘I didn’t get the Nobel Prize.’” He continued, “So I don’t want anybody from Norway…I don’t want anything to do with Norway.”
Statistics on the number of U.S. military Veterans of Norwegian origin are not readily available.
However, there are more than 4.5 million Norskamerikanere (Americans with ancestral roots in Norway) in the United States. A considerable number of men and women have served in the U.S. military, dating back to the Civil War and continuing thereafter.
Prominent examples are:
• The 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, popularly known as the “Scandinavian Regiment” or the “Norwegian Regiment.” This Civil War Union Army unit consisted of roughly 1,000 men, almost entirely Norwegian immigrants. It fought valiantly in some of that war’s bloodiest engagements.
• During World War II, the specialized 99th Infantry Battalion, nicknamed “The Viking Battalion,” consisted of Americans of Norwegian descent or Norwegian citizens living in the U.S. The Battalion landed in Normandy and fought fiercely across Europe playing a critical role in the Battle of the Bulge and assisting in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp.
This Veterans Day, our thanks and appreciation go out once again to all Veterans, with a special Thank You to Veterans with roots in a country of epic, rugged beauty, reflected in the resilience of its people.
