by Nate LaMar
Unless you are 100% Native American, you are of immigrant heritage. Immigrants helped to build our nation. Today, many immigrants, whether illegal, or even legal, often face discrimination at the hands of some who are quick to forget their own immigrant heritage. For many immigrants, military service became their fast-track ticket to US citizenship.
Baltimore native, Tony Sebo, is a friend and classmate from West Point, where he double-majored in German and Russian. He is also a fellow graduate of the Defense Language Institute, where he became a certified Russian linguist.He also graduated from Command & General Staff College and the US Army War College. He made the Army his career, serving 30 years on active duty. This included assignments as Deputy Army Attaché at our embassy in Berlin, Army Attaché at our embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, Defense Attaché at our embassy in Yerevan, Armenia, and Division Chief of the US European Command (USEUCOM) J5/8 Directorate for Policy and Strategy in Stuttgart, Germany. Having retired as a Colonel, Tony is now Program Intelligence Services lead for defense contractor, Leidos.
But Tony’s story goes back further. His father, Victor, immigrated to the USA, following his harrowing service in World War II. Indeed, the elder Mr. Sebo served in five different armies! Born in Cleveland to immigrant parents, the family returned to Czechoslovakia, due to the Great Depression, when Victor was 3 years old. At the age of 11, his parents apprenticed him to the Army of Czechoslovakia, where he played the French horn in one of its army’s bands. Following the Nazi occupation and dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1939, he became a member of an army bandof Slovakia, which by that time had become a puppet state ofNazi Germany. During the Slovak National Uprising against the Nazis in 1944, he and his bandmates were captured by Nazis and were set to be executed. When they said they were only bandsmen, the Germans asked where their instruments were. They said they had buried them in the woods, and the Germans said, “then go show us.” When they did, the Germans replied, “well OK, we won’t shoot you, but from now on they would be members of a German army band!”As the Germans retreated, Victor and his bandmates were able to get away and contact the advancing Soviet Army, who put them in one of their bands!When the war ended, he had just turned 18 and went back to the band in the re-established Czechoslovak Army. The Communists took over Czechoslovakia in 1948 and expelled the American-born elder Mr. Sebo in 1951. He then immigrated to the USA.
Drafted for the Korean War, the war ended before Victor was due to ship out, so he was assigned to the 4th Armored Division Band! After his draftee time, his band days were over, but Victor went into the Army Reserves and then the Maryland Army National Guard, where he retired as a Command Sergeant Major. When asked how many years he served in the Army, Victor was fond of replying, “Which one?!”
On this Veterans Day, let’s honor ALL who have served, to include our immigrants who have served. After all, we are an immigrant nation.
Nate LaMar, an international director, serves as Military Academy Liaison Officer (West Point recruiter) for East Central Indiana, and served as Henry County Council President from 2009-2019.
