Marine Lance Cpl. Carlos Lopes holds up his naturalization certificate yesterday. Army Spc. Eduardo Garcia-Gonzalez, right, also was sworn in as a U.S. citizen.

AP / Charles Dharapak

WASHINGTON — Whenever an Iraqi police vehicle would roll past Lance Cpl. Carlos Lopes’ platoon in Anbar province in western Iraq, his buddies had a standard way to razz the Marine from Cumberland about his Portuguese roots.

“They’d scream at me: ‘Immigration!’ ” Lopes said with a grin as he gripped a tiny American flag and a naturalization certificate, the emblems of his swearing-in as a U.S. citizen yesterday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Among other jokes, his pals christened him with the call sign “Euroguy,” said Lopes, who was among four wounded veterans of the war in Iraq who were naturalized during a ceremony conducted by Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Chertoff saluted the new citizens — Lopes and three soldiers — for service that has helped “to keep alive the dreams of countless immigrant soldiers who came before you.”

Chertoff also noted that, long before this ceremony, the wounded veterans had lived the terms of the oath they swore yesterday to “bear arms on behalf of the United States” when so required by law.

Lopes, 25, did not join the Marines to obey any requirement. The military draft was history when the son of Domingos and Maria Lopes came to Rhode Island from Evora, Portugal, 22 years ago. Nor did he join up because of the fast track to citizenship that enlistment in the armed services confers on green-card holders.

There are about 40,000 permanent foreign residents of the United States who are members of the armed services, according to Chris Bentley of the state department’s Citizenship and Naturalization Services. Up to 10,000 a year become citizens under a special program instituted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, by President Bush, whose administration is considering stepped up military recruiting of immigrants.

Ever since he was a child, Lopes said, “I always get these chills up and down my body,” when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. He said the recitation at yesterday’s ceremony was even better.

Lopes joined the Marines on his 23rd birthday, Sept. 13, 2004, fulfilling a boyhood aspiration. “I joined the Marines because I love this country,” he said, and because he wanted to do a job that might make it unnecessary for his nine nephews and nieces to fight someday.

Lopes was deployed to Iraq as a combat engineer in August 2005. In November 2005, he was badly injured when another Marine in full battle gear fell on top of him from the top of a two-story building, where they were setting up a machine-gun position.

He suffered a broken jaw, several fractures and a spine injury — and was paralyzed for almost two weeks. But he has recovered the ability to walk during treatment at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Lopes, despite what he called “manageable” pain from his spine injury, has recovered well enough to work at the liaison office at Bethesda, helping other wounded Marines. If it were not for his injuries, Lopes said, “give me my rifle and my flak jacket. I would go back with my guys in Iraq.”

Instead, Lopes said, he is grateful for his work at Bethesda. “We make sure that our Marines get taken care of.”

Alluding to the recent uproar over reports of poor treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed, Chertoff said, “I’m confident that when the dust has settled, Walter Reed will emerge a better place” for the treatment of service personnel like those honored yesterday.

Also on hand at the hospital auditorium for the swearing-in was Cpl. Patrick Murray, a 23-year-old Marine from North Kingston who lost most of his right leg when an IED exploded in Fallujah last year. Murray came to greet his fellow Rhode Islander, wearing a Marine Corps sweatshirt and black workout shorts over his metal leg, after his physical therapy at Walter Reed.

jmulligan@belo-dc.com