Charles Kanai dreamed of receiving his doctorate and returning to Kenya to teach the poorest of the poor.

God had a different plan.

“My goal always was to go back and educate kids,” he said. “But when God is asking you to do something, you need to do it. I felt like he was saying to me, ‘I need you to do one more thing: Join the Army.'"

Two years later, Kanai serves as a chaplain assigned to Fort Lewis. The 43-year-old Roman Catholic priest ministers to soldiers of a country that gave him a green card and an opportunity to further an education. And on Thursday, nine years after he first arrived in the United States and six weeks after returning from a deployment to Afghanistan, Capt. Kanai took the oath of citizenship at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building in Seattle.

Kanai and 40 other service members, spouses and veterans from 29 nations participated in the ceremony. They raised their right hands and swore loyalty to the United States and pledged to defend the county against all enemies. They listened to speakers, posed for photos and ate sheet cake decorated with the American flag.

Citizenship, Kanai said, was a natural step after his military service.

“I was ready to give up my life for my country,” he said. “I’m ready to become an American.”

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Eleven states - Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma and North Carolina - have adopted the Interstate Compact on Military Children. Fourteen others are considering it.

If you want to read the full compact, click here. (Adobe PDF format)

An interstate agreement hopes to address those issues, and Washington is now one step closer to adopting it.

A state task force studying the Interstate Compact on Military Children recommended Thursday that the Washington Legislature adopt a modified version of the agreement.

The task force met at Clover Park School District offices in Lakewood, whose hundreds of military students could be profoundly affected by the compact.

“Over the course of six months, we hashed out all the issues the school districts brought forward,” said state Sen. Steve Hobbs, task force co-chairman. “We kind of tweaked the compact to meet Washington’s needs while keeping the intent, which is helping our military children.”

Hobbs, a Democrat from Lake Stevens and an Army veteran of the Iraq war, said he plans to introduce a bill adopting the compact during the 2009 legislative session. He hopes the task force’s other co-chairwoman, Democratic Rep. Christine Rolfes of Bainbridge Island, will do so in the House.

Eleven states have adopted the compact; 14 are considering it.

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A summit in Tacoma on Friday will focus on providing needed resources to military children and families.

The second annual Washington State Military Kids and Families Summit will offer workshops on how children cope with deployment, transitions and reunion. Maj. Keith Lemmon, an adolescent medicine specialist and the director of the Military Child and Adolescent Center of Excellence at Madigan Army Medical Center, will address the audience about the effects of military deployment and its aftermath on children.

Later, a panel of teenagers that have a deployed parent will share how the military has impacted their lives. Bring questions, because there’s a Q&A session scheduled with the teens.

Sen. Patty Murray will make an appearance, thanking the children and family members for their sacrifice. She will discuss her experiences of growing up as the daughter of a veteran, the struggles her family faced when her father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and her work on behalf of the armed forces, according to a release from her office.

What: Washington State Military Kids and Families Summit
When: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday
Where: Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center, 1500 Broadway, Tacoma
Cost: $10 per person, $15 per family. Lunch and refreshments are included.

Over the past three months, Fort Lewis soldiers have been collecting aluminum cans. A lot of them – 78,000 cans weighing a total of one ton.

It’s part of America Recycles Day. Soldiers collected with their units over a 90-day competition, and they collected 33 cents for each pound of aluminum they collected. The top performers also will receive a cash award.

It’s part of the post’s ongoing effort to become a zero net-waste installation by 2025.