PR: Boys coming home from Iraq

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Puerto Rican soldiers who served in Iraq for about a year were due to return to the U.S. Caribbean territory Tuesday and Wednesday, officials said.

The first group of 45 U.S. Army reservists, belonging to the 394th Quartermaster Battalion, was scheduled to arrive Tuesday evening on a military flight, Army spokesman Jose Pagan said.

The remaining 125 reservists, attached to the 430th Combat Support Co., will arrive Wednesday night, Pagan said.

The 394th was activated in February 2003 and deployed in April 2003 to Kuwait and later Talil, Iraq, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) southeast of Baghdad, he said. The 430th was activated in March 2003 and deployed in May 2003 to Baghdad.

The writer complains:

Puerto Rico's 4 million residents cannot vote for U.S. president and have no vote in the U.S. Congress, though they are American citizens and have served in the U.S. military for generations.

There is that matter that PR doesn't have statehood. The recent historical parallel is that of Caribbeans who served in the British Army and had British passports but could not vote in British elections. So what?