Can you elaborate on the status of the citizen parent? Children of U.S. servicemen, business expats, academics, state dept. kids, etc. most certainly ARE American citizens from birth. What created an exception in this case? In the Obama chronicles, much was made of Stanley Dunham Obama's minority. Was the mother underage in the German case?
The years of residency requirement is (I presume) a statutory provision, as the Constitution most certainly does not discuss any such thing. Rules pertaining to dual citizenship are also statutory, not constitutional. Arguably, birthright citizenship for "Maria from Tijuana's" anchor baby could also be changed by Act of Congress, although there would be an argument about that.
My point is, the Constitution does not define natural born citizen. We can peer into penumbras and emanations and accede to judges making something up out of thin air, or we can adopt the simple and robust standard that "natural born" equals "citizen from birth" under the laws that obtain at the time.
In the Thomas case, the child was not a citizen because the US citizen father did not meet the residency requirement recited in the relevant Act of Congress, and the offshore military base is not in the US. It was the ather who was a US citizen, unlike Obama where the mother was the US citizen.
-- or we can adopt the simple and robust standard that "natural born" equals "citizen from birth" under the laws that obtain at the time. --
That is not the rule of law reflected in the cases.