OK the grandfather did come here by himself in 1923 and then the family joined him a few years later...
From the Pennsylvania website
http://www.patownhall.com/article.php?id=5860
Mr. Santorum was born in the Trento province of Italy to Maria and Pietro Santorum. Aldo, his mother, older brother Bruno and younger sister Carla moved to the Johnstown area when he was 7 to join his father, who came to the United States five years earlier.
“My grandfather was working in the auto industry but lost his job during the Depression,” Rick Santorum said. “He finally found a job in the coal mines of Western Pennsylvania in 1929 and the family joined him.”
The family lived in a company town called Carpenters Park. “After several years in the mines, the family moved upscale to nearby Tyler Hill,” Santorum said.
Mr. Santorum joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 after high school, serving most of World War II in the South Pacific where his main job was repairing airplanes.
After returning from the war, he earned a psychology degree from St. Francis College in Loretto, a graduate degree from Catholic University in Washington and a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Ottawa.
“He then went to work for the Veterans Administration and that is where he met my mom,” Rick Santorum said.
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So Ricks Dad was a US veteran...
(and went to school on the old GI Bill...)
But I cant find yet WHEN he became a US citizen...
I’d think the Air Force (an Army dept back then?) would ensure he naturalized during his service.
Turns out we have just the guy. AAC, what was the policy in the 40s, 50s for naturalizing an immigrant serviceman while in service?