Filip Samek (Phillip Sameck), my grandfather, came to the United States in 1910 aboard the liner, George Washington, from O'Tura (Stara Tura), Hungary. with his father Valerian and several friends from the same villiage. 

Grandpa and his two friends had a picture taken for a postcard that was sent back to Hungary, now Slovakia, to prove to the family that they had really arrived.  The family lore is that his father, Valerian, did not like the United States and returned home leaving Phillip to fend for himself with a few dollars in his pocket and his basic wits.

In 1917, he joined the army and entered a gunnery battalion in New York State.  It never occurred to my grandfather that he was not eligible to join the service.  In the seven years he lived in the United States, he had not yet applied for naturalization.  However, since it was wartime, it would take the US Army 18 months to catch up with him and give him an honorable discharge.

Now, in the nineteen teens, if you were a resident alien and served honorably for the United States, you were automatically eligible for naturalization.  So in the case of my grandfather's citizenship, it was truly a chicken and egg situation that helped him process his papers when he eventually became a citizen.