Interpreters perform a vital function when the United States is in a foreign country where not many of the residents speak English. Getting the interpreters to where they’re needed is the job of a Marine Lance Corporal with Regimental Combat Team-7, deployed to Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Managing editor Tami Roleff introduces us to Lance Corporal Nathan Blake…
About 300 Afghanis work as interpreters, or “linguists” for the U.S. government in Afghanistan. One of the Marines in charge of taking care of them and their needs is Lance Corporal Nathan Blake, 19, an admin clerk with RCT-7. “We’re in charge of all their pay, which unit they go to, when they need to go on leave, we send them, taken them on their flights.” Blake isn’t just in charge of sending the interpreters out to their units He also checks on them at the forward operating bases to make sure all is well. “I go out to see how they’re doing, contact with their family, if they’re getting treated right.” One of the rituals of meeting with the Afghanis is sitting down and drinking tea, or chai. “Their chai tea is amazing. You have a gathering; all of them in there. They pour it all out. Tea leave, hot water, they put a ton of sugar to make it sweet; it’s good.” Lance Corporal Blake enjoys his contact with the linguists. “Seeing the culture and how it seems from the non-military aspect. It’s pretty cool to see their side of it.” Blake hopes to expand his contact with other cultures by being selected as a Marine Security Guard and be stationed at an embassy in a South American country.
WE TALK TO A MARINE IN AFGHANISTAN
