Home » Archives » "Soldiers' training turns to language, culture"

Soldiers' training turns to language, culture

May-30-2006 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

Link to Full Article
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

The scene is the urban training center at Fort Lewis, but it could be Mosul or Balad or Samarra.

A squad bursts through the door and up the stairs in search of a “high-value target.”

The soldiers find a man and a woman. When they question him, she makes a racket – in rapid-fire Arabic – until the soldiers remember to separate them and lead the man to another room.

Though he is surrounded by troops with weapons, he tells them nothing but his name. He doesn’t have ID.

The woman won’t shut up. She says the man is her father, that he’s very sick and needs medicine. He says he doesn’t know her.

Further questioning is no use. He’s mum. She rants. The soldiers’ Iraqi interpreter is frustratingly slow.

The man doesn’t look like the guy they’re after, but descriptions can be off. They take him away in flex-cuffs, despite more pleading from the woman.

This recent exercise was a textbook example of the gap that U.S. troops are still struggling to overcome in Iraq, three years into the occupation.

“Exactly what we’ll see in Iraq,” said Capt. Reed Burggrabe, part of a brigade headed back there soon.

The Department of Defense is pouring millions into teaching soldiers to read and speak Arabic, and better understand the culture. Fort Lewis is at the forefront of the effort.


Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by a site administrator before your comment will appear. We appreciate your patience.)

Advertisements