1st Lt. Donald Wagner is a 1997 Penn State journalism graduate. The former assistant editor Penn State sports magazine Blue White Illustrated, he is currently serving in Afghanistan with the 1-506th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, based out of Fort Campbell, Ky. Wagner is sharing his experiences on the ground in Afghanistan in a series of dispatches for Penn State Newswire and Penn State Live. In his fourth installment, Wagner explains the importance and bravery of Afghan interpreters and the risks they face to help the U.S. and their countrymen.
For the first installment, visit http://live.psu.edu/story/34170.
For the second installment, visit http://live.psu.edu/story/34295.
For the third installment, visit http://live.psu.edu/story/34495.
There are many heroes over here, the vast majority of whom wear the uniform of the United States Army. However, there are people who don’t wear our uniform but deserve credit for what they are doing, namely the interpreters who work alongside U.S. and Afghan Forces everyday.
The interpreters put their lives on the line for their country, doing the exact same things we soldiers do but without all the weapons, armor and training.
Most of them are just Afghans who want to make a difference for their country. I am not sure they even realize the danger they are in sometimes.
I cannot tell you how many times we would be getting ready to leave on a mission and my interpreter would show up without his helmet or any concern for his own danger. We were constantly reminding our interpreters to keep their body armor fastened on a mission or to not take their helmet off just because they were hot.
Still, we could not do our jobs as effectively as we do without these guys. A good interpreter is always there when you need him. From day one, my interpreters knew they needed to be right behind me and I wasn’t going to tell them twice. In fact, given the dangerous nature of some of the situations we were in, having to tell them once was one time too many. If I jumped out of my humvee in the middle of a firefight, then they jumped out too. If I went running somewhere they were running right behind me. Often times I would turn around and nearly run over one of them in my haste.
On night missions they walked right along side us without complaint, despite the fact they didn’t have the night vision capability we did. On one particular mission my guys and I went charging through a water-logged field trying to stop someone we wanted to question. Of course it was no problem for us because we had our night vision goggles. Amazingly my interpreter stayed right beside me the whole time. To this day I am amazed he didn’t face plant right into the muck.
Of course interpreters are paid well for their services. And while this affords most of them a standard of living well above the average Afghan, the majority of the interpreters I know send a good chunk of their monthly wages home to their families. Typical Afghan families have numerous grandparents, uncles, aunts and other relatives living under the same roof. Most of the interpreters I worked with and talked to saw it as an honor to help take care of their families and willingly sent home part of their paycheck.
The other reason so many Afghans take the chance to be an interpreter is the opportunity to apply for U.S. citizenship. Aside from having to work with U.S. forces for a certain amount of time, they must also get several letters of recommendation from U.S. commanders and undergo an extensive background check by the Afghan government.
It’s hard to describe the dynamic you develop with your interpreters. Despite the numerous cultural differences, you still develop a bond just like you would with one of your soldiers. I had two full-time interpreters assigned to my platoon but I worked with all of the interpreters in our company at various times. You spend that much time with someone on a daily basis, interacting with them (including, in our case, a friendly Americans vs. Afghans soccer match every evening) and putting your lives on the line, it is hard not to get close.
No matter what I asked my interpreters to do they did it. There were even times I would catch myself asking them to do something and then say to myself, "If someone asked me to do that I’d tell them to get lost."
Whether it was walking up the side of a mountain or running into a firefight my interpreters were always right beside me.
And that made for some interesting times. Once in a helicopter on our way to a mission I looked over and my interpreter was turning several different shades of green. I quickly pointed to his helmet and indicated that if he was going to be sick, he needed to take his helmet off and throw up in it. Several minutes later that’s exactly what he did.
Every month our interpreters took leave. Their trips home were always long and dangerous. Imagine driving on your summer vacation in constant fear that at any moment someone could stop your car, yank you out and shoot you on the spot. There are numerous published accounts of this kind of thing happening to interpreters all over Afghanistan. Thankfully that didn’t happen to any of our guys but they always travelled in fear that it might.
PICK ‘EM
Temple is supposedly much-improved. I have my doubts … PSU 45, Temple 13.