One weekend a month, Kyungmin Cho, a 20-year-old sophomore at Temple University and aspiring Army recruit, makes the two-hour drive to an Army base in New Jersey, dons a uniform and recites the U.S. Army Soldier’s Creed.

“I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life,” the creed reads. ”I am an American soldier.”

Pvt. Cho, in fact,...