Lol no. For almost the entire 20th century, until 1992, Filipinos could just join the Navy or Coast Guard at foreign recruiting posts, without even being American residents, then get fast-tracked for citizenship.

I remember learning about that from Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, back in the day.

It’s not even a US-specific thing. Many countries recruit foreigners to their militaries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_militaries_that_recrui...