Tony Lopez spent eight years of his life defending his country.

But when the U.S. Army paratrooper applied for a passport for the first time in December — so he could attend a reunion with his war buddies in the Philippines — the government told him his birth certificate wasn’t valid.

“What’s this all about?” Lopez asked in amazement. “I can’t believe this happened. I’m 85 years old.”

The Denver resident wanted to return to the scene of his final battle — tiny Corregidor Island, which guards the entrance to Manila Bay in the Philippines.

Feb. 16 marks the 65th anniversary of the Battle for the Recapture of Corregidor. His compatriots offered to honor him by having him “raise the colors” in memory of the 173 Americans who died during the 10-day battle to take back the island from the Japanese.

So Lopez and his wife, Mary Louise, applied for passports. He submitted his birth certificate, driver’s license and military-discharge papers.

On Friday, Mary Louise received her passport. But Tony got a rejection notice.

In the letter, the U.S. State Department in Charleston, S.C., said Lopez’s birth certificate — issued by the state of New Mexico when he was 65 — was not valid because it hadn’t been issued within a year of his birth.

Lopez said he was born in the “two-street village” of Rodey, N.M.

“The Catholic church burned down, and all the records were lost,” he said. “In 1990, my brother and I traced our baptismal records to Santa Fe. The state took those and gave us our birth certificates based on that.”

Late Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette’s office called to say a one-year passport had been issued for Lopez, thanks to string-pulling by Sen. Michael Bennet’s offices.

The promised passport still had not reached Lopez by Tuesday night, making family members worry that he still may not be able to attend the reunion.

Lopez’s combat experiences are among the proudest highlights of his long life. His house is filled with photographs of him and his war buddies. His scrapbook contains photos of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, with whom Lopez spoke twice during the war.

On a wall in Lopez’s office is a box frame displaying his 13 war medals, including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. In his front yard, a small replica of a DC-3, the airplane from which he parachuted into invasions, flies atop a 7-foot metal pole.

Lopez spent three of his Army years overseas. He made three amphibious landings and twice parachuted into hot combat zones.

His last jump was onto Corregidor. The Army attacked the heavily fortified island from the sea and from the air on Feb. 16, 1945.

The island was so small that paratroopers had a difficult time landing in a drop zone the size of a football field — minuscule for fully loaded DC-3s dropping hundreds of paratroopers. Lopez said he was so nervous that he jumped the green light inside the plane and landed in a small tree outside the drop zone.

When Lopez returned stateside, he healed his wounds and was honorably discharged.

“I never had any desire to return to the Philippines,” he said recently. “I didn’t leave anything there that I wanted to see.”

But late last year, his surviving war buddies organized the reunion on Corregidor.

After talking with his wife and family, Lopez decided they would go and raise the flags, as he was asked.

The five family members who were going to make the trip decided to wait for the passports before booking flights and hotels.

Lopez and his family aren’t sure they’ll be able to make the trip, even if the short-term passport does come through, said his daughter, Yolanda Goad, a retired Denver police officer.

“My brother, Tom, who was a paratrooper in Vietnam, really wants my father to go,” she said. “But it’s getting so late. I don’t know.”

Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com