The United States military offers an expedited path to US citizenship for lawful residents who commit to service. In 2024, while filming the US Marine Corps boot camp in Camp Pendleton, California, chief video correspondent Graham Flanagan followed one recruit taking advantage of this opportunity.

Twenty-four-year-old Ralph Dahilig immigrated to the US from the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although he holds a bachelor's degree in information systems, Dahilig struggled to find a job in the tech industry, which led him to pursue a career in the Marine Corps.

At 5 feet 4 inches tall, Dahilig is not what many might picture as the prototypical US Marine. He had to learn to think outside the box to make it to The Crucible, the 54-hour culminating event of the 13-week boot camp. All recruits must endure it before they receive the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor pendant, symbolizing their official transformation from recruit to US Marine.

We continue our series covering the first day at America's military colleges and academies with Norwich University in Vermont. The oldest of all of the private US senior military colleges, Norwich University predates Virginia Military Institute and The Citadel and is credited as the birthplace of the military's Reserve Officers' Training Corps, or ROTC. While about half of the university's students matriculate as civilians, the other half enlist in the Corps of Cadets, which follows a strict military training regimen. On day zero, incoming freshmen, known as "rooks" (short for "recruits"), say goodbye to their families before being indoctrinated by upperclassmen, known as cadre, into the lifestyle of a Norwich cadet.