Army stands up first foreign language unit

[unhappycamper]

Army stands up first foreign language unit
Staff report
Posted : Thursday Oct 23, 2008 6:01:25 EDT

The Army will officially stand up its first foreign language unit Thursday.

The recently formed 51st Translator Interpreter Company at Fort Irwin, Calif., will provide uniform-wearing interpreters and translators to units deploying to places like Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an Army press release.

The 51st will be manned by soldiers with the newly established Military Occupational Specialty 09 Lima. These are native or “heritage” speakers, meaning they have been speaking a particular language their entire lives, in the home or in school, the release states.

“They’ve grown up in the U.S. … speaking their mother’s tongue, though many have never been to their mother’s nation of birth,” Col. John Bird, director of training development and support at the Army Intelligence Center in Fort Huachuca, Ariz., said in the release.

While not yet fully manned, the unit will eventually include more than 140 native speakers of languages like Arabic, Farsi, Pashtu, Kurdish and Dari, the release said. Right now, the 51st has about 120 soldiers assigned, with about 90 of those working in theater.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/army_languageunit_102208/%2e

[Dissent Is Patriotic]

1. What took them so damn long...you would think they would have had

such a unit since Poppy Bushwacker...these people have their heads in their heinies.