I served in the British Forces as a uniformed Senior Medical Officer for 27 years and retired in 1998. During those years, not only did I treat British servicemen and their families, but also quite a number of American servicemen and their families. I also worked with the American Armed Forces as part of the Rapid Deployment Force in the mid-1980s. Indeed, I was the Senior Medical Officer of the Royal Irish Rangers unit deployed to the Mojave Desert in California in 1984, working in conjunction with the American Armed Forces.

I was also the Senior Medical of the British 4th Armoured Brigade, or Desert Rats, based in Munster, Germany, prior to their deployment to Iraq to join US and other Allied Forces to liberate Kuwait in 1991. On 5 August 2005, I visited the US Embassy in Floriana, in order to obtain a visa to visit the USA on holiday.

I had to go through all the paraphernalia of never- ending form-filling, photographs and even fingerprinting in order to get a visa to enter the United States. The irony of this charade was that my German wife, who has a German passport, just needed to have her passport looked at and checked. No fingerprinting, photographs or filling out of forms, asking whether the applicant ever belonged to a terrorist organisation, had a criminal record, was a pimp or prostitute, or whether she was suffering from some communicable disease, or – wait for it – whether that applicant ever participated in persecutions directed by the Nazi government of Germany!

All this was so completely different to when I landed in a military base in the USA in 1984, in military combat uniform and presented my British Army ID card. I am Maltese, extremely proud of it, and have had a Maltese passport for many years. Why has the United States discriminated between the 25 EU countries and only waived the visa application for 15 of those, including Slovenia which, like Malta, is one of the new members? Ironically, US citizens are not required to get a visa when visiting our country. Surely, there should be reciprocal visa waivering. The present situation is an affront and an insult to all us Maltese. Apparently, the US has forgotten their former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s words of praise of our George Cross islands as seen on the Scroll in Palace Square in Valletta, whereby he saluted the Maltese people. I will just quote the latter part of his salute:

“Under repeated fire from the skies, Malta stood alone but unafraid in the centre of the sea. One tiny bright flame in the darkness, a beacon of hope for the clearer days which have come. Malta’s bright story of human fortitude and courage will be read by posterity with wonder and gratitude through all the ages. What was done in this Island maintains the highest tradition of gallant men and women, who from the beginning of time have lived and died to preserve civilisation for all mankind.”

Wake up United States. Your present attitude towards Maltese passport-holders does not tally with your former President’s glorious salute to these islands. Sadly, with all due respect, such a stance towards all our islands’ passport holders, smacks of discrimination, and is more in line with a two-fingered salute to a former vital ally of yours during the Second World War.

By the way, during the Nazi government’s bombardment of these islands, I was living the difficult life of a man in a woman’s body. I was born a few months afterwards!

Colonel Dr Raymond Bencini

Zebbug