Go here and type in serial number 32186682. It appears that Sam Alito enlisted on 3/14/41 as a private. He was born in New Jersey in 1914. At the time of his enlistment, he was single and a teacher.
The New York Times reports that many of the elder Alito's friends were surprised to hear Bush refer to him as an immigrant:
...some colleagues and friends of the elder Mr. Alito, who died in 1987, said they had never heard some of the stories his son has recounted, including the episode about his support for the black student and the fact that his father immigrated from Italy as a child. Some of the elder Mr. Alito's colleagues said they first learned that he was born in Italy when President Bush mentioned it in announcing the nomination.
According to a commenter at Daily Kos,
the 1930 census records show Alito's grandfather, Anthony, came to the US in 1913. His wife, Mary, and his son Samuel (our Samuel's dad), came in 1914, which is also the year Sam père was born. The census record states that all three were born in Italy, and as of 1930, Anthony had been naturalized, but not Mary or Samuel père.
Personally, I think that Samuel père may have fudged his birthplace when he joined the army. That is, he might simply have failed to mention he was born in Italy.
The only reason this matters is because Bush is heralding Alito as the child of an immigrant who came to this country to seek his fortune -- as if he cares about immigrant rights, when we all know he is about to trample those rights.
So, if Alito's father was not born in Italy, we should know about it. I suspect Bush and his White House staff who did the vetting made the mistake, not Alito, but if it was wrong, shouldn't Alito have corrected the record at the earliest opportunity?
Especially now, when Republican talking points are using Alito's father as a reason to support the nomination, it's important for Judge Alito to address this issue.
