return to Ireland with his new wife without them facing discrimination. Immigranting to America Having both returned home, both O'Reilly and Kea sought to reunite in the United States. However, the process was long and O'Reilly found it difficult to obtain a visa. Even the American Embassy in London told him he was unlikely to succeed. However, back in New York Kea was able to return to her position as head nurse at Harlem Hospital, which strengthened their case. Kea also directly wrote to the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, for assistance, and some seemed to be forthcoming. O'Reilly was granted a visa and rejoined Kea in New York on 22 August 1940. Once there, Reilly was able to find work with the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT). Under Irish republican and socialist organiser "Red" Mike Quill, the IRT was popularly known as the "Irish Republican Transit" Company because so many Irish republican exiles worked there. World War II In early 1943, O'Reilly was drafted into the 82nd Engineer Combat Regiment of the US Army at age 35. The unit received training at Camp Swift in Texas before being shipped to North Africa in November 1943, and from there to Frome in Somerset, England, where they were kept in waiting for D-Day. 10 days after the landing at Omaha Beach, the 82nd deployed into Normandy. Over the next 11 months, O'Reilly and the 82 would support the allied advance into France towards Paris, from there on towards Northern France and Belgium. In December 1944 they participated in the Battle of the Bulge as frontline infantry. By April 1945 the 82nd had pierced all the way to Magdeburg in Germany, just 95 miles from Berlin. On 5 May 1945, victory was declared in Europe and O'Reilly was sent home. Later life The Second war powers act of 1942 made it much easier for non-citizens who served in the American military to obtain citizenship after their service had ended. Because of this, O'Reilly was able to obtain American citizenship while still overseas; O'Reilly received his Certificate of Naturalization while in Paris on 28 May 1945. O'Reilly and Kea reunited in New York after the war. They met immediately tragedy when their first and only child died during pregnancy in 1946, and afterwards, Kea was unable to conceive again. Additionally, O'Reilly and Kea were occasionally harassed by the FBI because of