[I cannot think of a name]

“Does anybody know if the government has the power to do this or if it was done to US volunteers fighting for the Brits before we entered the war?”

I believe there was some kind of “administrative” procedure to state that as long as they wore the uniform of another nation they were not “considered” to be citizens. It all had to do with our supposed “neutrality” and should one of these guys fall into the bad guys hands.

I believe the men that flew in the Flying Tigers were also put into some special “non-citizen” category.

Obviously, once we entered the war this all went away.

[catman67]

The Flying Tigers were essentially mercenaries.

It is OK to fight for a foreign country, as long as you don’t swear allegiance to it. This is basiclly how thr French Foreign Legion works.

[Sherman Logan]

I suspect this did not “strip them of citizenship.”

It probably was that the US classified them as non-citizens for purposes of US protection, if fighting in a war where US was neutral. Which makes perfect sense.

AFAIK, there is no mechanism by which a born US citizen can be stripped of his citizenship in the legal sense. Even renouncing your citizenship voluntarily is quite a production number.