ONE SOLDIER’S TAKEAWAY FROM AFGHANISTAN:
“WE NEED TO BUILD
SCHOOLS.”
by Rebecca Lee
Ida Lapointe arrived in Afghanistan with a basic
understanding of Pashto and a desire to make something
of her life. She was on active duty with the United States Air
Force, trained as a linguist to support U.S. operations.
W
e talked with Ida about her
experience in Afghanistan. We
wanted to know what she learned
about the role of education in a country
where women and girls have endured
decades of repression.
Ida grew up on a small farm in North
Carolina, a place she describes as “the
middle of nowhere.” She explains: “I had
no exposure to job choices. I started college
without a clue about what I wanted
to study. I was aimless. I wandered
for three years, worked in retail for
a while. One day it hit me: I want
to do something with my life, and
I enlisted.”
Back in high school, Ida had
discovered she had a gift for learning
languages. French and Spanish were
her easiest subjects. She picked up
vocabulary quickly. “I went into the
Air Force wanting to be a linguist.
I got lucky. They were desperate for
linguists around the time I enlisted.”
After basic training at Lackland
Air Force Base in Texas, Ida spent 20
months in Monterey, California, in
an intensive cultural and language
immersion program. She was taught
Pashto by native Afghans who had
relocated to the United States.
“These were very intelligent
people teaching us. Some of them had
as many as four college degrees.” She
learned how Afghans interact and
12 | JOURNEY OF HOPE
what they believe. She fast-tracked through
the last 50 years of Afghanistan’s war-ridden
history. Geography, weather, and tribal lines
and disputes were all part of preparing Ida
and her peers for their tour in a country
on the other side of the world.
In April of 2017, Ida was deployed. She
spent six months on active duty working
as a linguist. During her free time, she
volunteered in the intensive care unit
Ida Lapointe pictured center
(ICU) of a field hospital, helping medical
technicians wash and dress the wounds
of injured Afghans. They treated everyone
from high-ranking military officers to young
men and boys.
Ida’s most poignant memories are from the
ICU. There she realized that her knowledge
of the local language not only helped save
lives, but also meant a great deal to the
Afghans. She recalled one severely wounded
Afghan soldier who came in with
his right leg and half of his left leg
missing, multiple chest wounds, and
blood pressure too low to tolerate
pain medication. When he finally
recovered enough to speak, one of
the first things he wanted to know
was where Ida had learned Pashto.
Serving in Afghanistan, Ida also
witnessed firsthand the stigma
and harassment that women in the
Afghan National Army often face.
Even though most were college
educated, at times they were taunted
by their male peers for not “knowing
their place” and staying at home.
Rather than referring to them by
their name or rank, the men called
them “sister” or “auntie.” Some
asserted that the only reason these
women had a job was because they
had granted sexual favors to the
men who hired them. She watched
the women bravely face such abuse,
determined to look past it towards