Werner Trei is a 71 year-old decorated Vietnam War veteran who is determined to finally become a citizen of the country he risked his life fighting for.

Werner explained that his family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska from Germany when he was just 2 years-old, and while he has qualified for green-card status over the years, he had thought that serving in the Army would automatically make him a citizen. However, this was actually not the case, and after being moved to hospice care while suffering from brain cancer, Werner would now like to become a citizen before he passes on.

Werner was a highly decorated soldier during the war, earning three Bronze Stars and a Vietnamese Gallantry Cross for helping to save 100 stranded Vietnamese civilians who were being held deep inside enemy territory, yet he was never made an official citizen. During the war, Werner was assigned to the dangerous job of being a tunnel rat, which means he was tasked with clearing and destroying the Viet Cong’s complicated tunnel systems armed with only a pistol, a knife and a flashlight. This was particularly terrifying because the Viet Cong would booby trap the 2-foot wide tunnels with trip wires set to detonate explosives or overturn boxes full of scorpions or poisonous snakes onto the heads of enemy troops.

“I still have nightmares about it,” Werner said. “The snakes would make this noise when they spit their venom that sounded like when you would squirt water through your teeth as a kid. It was awful. I still have times when it gets me.”

Like many other soldiers, Werner returned home after the war suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It messed him up,” explained his sister Hilde Lowry. “We had two little girls at the time and anytime he heard a loud noise he would go diving to the ground. Just seeing snakes on the TV scared him.”

Realizing that his death is imminent, he has embarked on a quest for citizenship and filed the necessary paperwork with the help of Carrie Sladek, the director of life enrichment at Peaks Care Center.

“He studies for his tests every day,” Carrie said, “but we’re beginning to see fluctuations in his cognitive ability and he’s having more trouble remembering his answers each day that passes.”

She has reached out to Sen. Cory Gardner and Gov. Jared Polis to see if they could expedite the process for Werner, but she has yet to hear back from them. Werner himself has said that he is ready whenever the two politicians can get to him.

“It would mean the world to me,” he said. “I’m in hospice care now, so I don’t have that long left.”

Find out more about this in the video below.