Defense Threat Reduction Agency Airman named
Language Professional of the Year
By Staff Sgt. J.G. Buzanowski, Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
WASHINGTON (AFN) When Staff Sgt. Agne Mileviciute
came to the U.S. from Lithuania
in 1999, she knew exactly what she
wanted to do: find a way to serve her
new country.
Mileviciute is a Russian
interpreter and recently was
honored as the Air Force Language
Professional of the Year at the
Command Language Program
Seminar at the Defense Language
Institute Foreign Language Center
in Monterey, Calif.
An airborne cryptolinguist,
Mileviciute is assigned to the
Defense Threat Reduction Agency at
Fort Belvoir, Va.
To be considered for the award,
Mileviciute had to write a detailed
essay on how to help future linguists
improve their language test scores.
Her solution was to increase
opportunities for cultural immersion,
based on her own experiences.
After Lithuania declared its
independence in 1990, she said she
began learning English by watching
movies and listening to music.
“I can’t tell you how many times
I watched “Terminator” and “Police
Academy,” she said of her early
exposure to film.
She said she learned to love rock
‘n’ roll in her teens, but it wasn’t easy.
“You had to know someone to get
The Beatles or Pink Floyd.”
Mileviciute and her father
emigrated from Lithuania to
Chicago when she was 19.
A few months later, she wanted
to strike out on her own, she
said, while still finding a way to
honor her new home.
She said the Air Force was exactly
what she neede d.
“When I joined the Air Force, my
English wasn’t the greatest,” she said.
“But at basic training, I was totally
immersed, and it was a lot easier to
learn the language that way.”
“It was sink or swim; I chose to
swim,” she said.
According to her supervisor,
Petty Officer 1st Class Caleb Moore,
Mileviciute is one of the best
linguists he’s ever worked with.
“With her thirst for knowledge
and her fantastic work ethic, she’s an
amazing part of our team,” Moore said.
Mileviciute works in the Open
Skies Treaty program and spent
much of her career at Offutt Air
Force Base, Neb., aboard OC135 Open Skies airplanes. The
aircraft serves as an observation
platform that allows unarmed flights
over the territories of a variety of
participating nations to observe
military forces and activities.
She started her career in logistics,
but cross trained because of her
fluency in Russian.
“I already spoke the language, so I
felt like I had something to offer the
Air Force,” she said.
Mileviciute was selected the
language professional of the year out
of more than 3,000 Airmen.
Article published July 6, 2010
Staff Sgt. Agne Mileviciute writes in a mission log Jan. 16, 2010, as pictures are
taken over Haiti by an OC-135B Open Skies observation aircraft.
(Department of Defense photo/Airman 1st Class Perry Aston)
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