Soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division speak Dari
By Brian Lamar, Strategic Communications
FORT DRUM, New York - By the end of a 16week language course in Dari, 55 soldiers planning
to deploy with the 10th Mountain Division to
Afghanistan, stand in an auditorium and recite Dari
phrases that are very foreign to the typical American
during a graduation ceremony at the Fort Drum,
N.Y., Mountain Language Academy July 23.
All of the graduates are preparing to deploy to
Afghanistan in the spring of 2011 and most of the
class is bracing for their second or third deployment.
Honor graduate, Staff Sgt. Michael Irwin, was
surprised and happy to get the opportunity to go the
extra mile in preparing for this deployment. Irwin,
who is no stranger to Afghanistan with plenty of time
in country, knows how difficult working in such a
foreign cultural environment can be.
“During my last deployment, I was a squad leader
in a unit that was working to train the Afghan
National Army. It is really difficult to train a foreign
military through a civilian interpreter who is not
military. They just don’t understand some of the
vocabulary,” said Irwin.
Irwin was approached by his leadership and was
told that his company was looking for two “smart”
guys. He didn’t quite know what was in store for him.
His commander sent him to the Fort’s education
center where he was told to take the Defense
14
Language Aptitude Battery [DLAB]. Irwin scored
107 on the test, an indicator that he can absorb a
foreign language quickly. This was confirmed when
he scored a 1+ after finishing the course.
“I was excited, before this class, I had sat down
on my own in Afghanistan and memorized as many
phrases from a Dari language survival kit that I could,
but it was a poor substitute for this class,” Irwin
explained.
Although Irwin is enthusiastic about his upcoming
deployment, the cynicism of a war-weary Soldier
cracks through his professional demeanor.
“I think that the Soldiers who went through
this course can be a force multiplier as long as the
commanders are willing to use the guys they sent to
this training right. If they put them with a 249 on a
corner of a building where they don’t interact with
locals, then sending them to this class is worthless,”
Irwin explained.
According to Irwin, had the course lasted a month
longer, he would have augmented his abilities to the
next level of proficiency.
The language program staff and the 10th
Mountain Division command are planning to reset
and have a few more cycles rotate through the course
until the spring, when the troops plan to leave for
Afghanistan.