Why Americans Don't Have a Passport?

I've been traveling since I was seven years old; for me having a passport was a "must" if I wanted to travel.  For my family, having a valid/current passport was always a priority, "you need to have it if the situation in the country gets dangerous" my dad used to say.  So for me a person without one was a weirdo. 

When my Marine was ending his deployment he was supposed to come visit me and then the question arrived: do you have a passport baby?  He did not. 

Fact:

From the 313 million U.S. resident in 2012 there were over 113 million valid U.S. passports in circulation according to the State Department, that means that about 36 percent of Americans had passports.  Ken Chavez, spokesperson for the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the US Department (I love to quote) says "More Americans have passports now than ever before".  

That could be true (supported by facts) but the thing is that for me, the people around me, they do not have one. 

So: Why Lord? Why oh Why my Marine does not have a passport?

Possible Explanation: 

The United States (My education in Geography prevents me to call it America) is exceptionally big.  You could fit Belgium, France, Netherlands, Denmark and Luxemburg inside Texas and still have room (asked Forbes). So it doesn't seem Americans have to go far to see a different scenario, they could stick around their country and still get to see different things over and over.  They didn’t even need passports when traveling to Canada or México – at least until recently –  Americans used to be able to cross our northern or southern borders “as quickly as they might go to the corner grocery store,” notes Alec Levenson, Research Scientist at the Center of Effective Organizations of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. 

Then, to paraphrase the (oft misquoted) line from the Treasure of the Sierra Madre: “Passports? We (they) don’t need no stinkin’ passports!”

Levenson also points to demographics for the rise in passport holders: notably population (248 million Americans in the 1990 census to an estimated 313 million in 2011) and globalization. “We certainly have become no less of an international society than we were 30 years ago,” he says. “People are more likely to be traveling abroad and working abroad. Passport issuance is the ultimate measure of those people.”

If you add to that the fact that my Marine is...a Marine, you can explain how the hell did he get in Germany, Russia, Ireland and so on without one. 

Ok now, your girlfriend ins't American, she lives abroad and you need...yes, you need one.  After deployment, first thing he did was to check on that, everything was "covered" he said.  At the end he could not visit me and the passport surprisingly never arrived.  I continued to ask him about it, I told him: "What if something happens to me and you have to come?" He said: "I can get it in one day for $400 dollars".  So the fact that the passport was "missing" didn't bothered him. UNTIL YESTERDAY.

We were on a video call and his mom said hi.  After we hung up he told me "my mom always asks me a million things after I finish talking to you". I was "like what?", "like when are we going to see each other" he said.  Later that night at dinner his mom and dad were talking of how good of a couple we are and how they can see he is so in love.  Then they said that for his graduation and his birthday they would fight him to me.

"Baby! that can't be done, you don't have a passport!". 

Fingers crossed that they can figure that out, I'm very confident it will come out right and even though he will only be with me for a week (it's an 8 hours flight, shoot me!) it is the most amazing feeling, knowing I could be seeing him in...well, this month!