• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Back to basics in Afghanistan

US Marine Corps News

6/10/2010
By Lance Cpl. Stefanie C. Pupkiewicz, Marine Corps Bases Japan

Laghman Province, Afghanistan -- The dense jungles of northern Okinawa are a far cry from the mountains of Afghanistan that Sgt. Joshua Mathes had grown accustomed to during his seven-month deployment as part of Embedded Training Team 5-5, Regional Corps Advisory Command 3-7.

Mathes, who is the chief instructor at the Jungle Warfare Training Center, volunteered for the deployment at the end of 2008, he said.

He understood what was in store for him as a member of an embedded training team because he assisted in the training of Iraqi police in Fallujah in 2007.

Eager to get another combat deployment under his belt, Mathes responded to the opportunity with, “If you are asking, I’ll go.”

Once Mathes’ boots were on the ground though, he realized it would be different than he anticipated.

Going from a platoon-size element, like he was used to working in, to only a three-man embedded training team was an interesting experience, Mathes said.

There were only three Marines at the combat outpost, and they were responsible for advising three full Afghan National Army reconnaissance platoons and an ANA field artillery platoon. The Army National Guard was also at the outpost but they were there under different orders, Mathes said.

The interaction with the ANA was very positive, he said. They were eager to learn and fearless when confronted.

“These guys aren’t afraid of anything,” he said.

At one point, during a patrol, the group received enemy fire. Mathes, following Marine Corps procedure, took cover and turned to engage the enemy, but several members of the ANA had already started to run up the mountain in pursuit of the enemy. While not keeping within the procedures the embedded training team was trying to instill in the ANA, it was a brave and memorable act for Mathes, he said.

Mathes, a machine gunner, was largely responsible for the ANA’s weapons instruction. He qualified them on the M-16A2 service rifle, the M-240B medium machine gun and the .50-caliber Browning machine gun.

In addition to training the ANA, he spent a lot of his free time in the camp with them, and though they did not speak the same language, they managed an easy friendship, Mathes said.

Communication was restricted to games of impromptu charades and laughing when they couldn’t understand one another, Mathes said.

There were three soldiers that spoke decent English but for the most part the ANA spoke Dari, Farsi and Pashto. He tried to learn at least a new phrase a week so he could communicate better, Mathes said.

He learned a lot of Arabic during his deployment to Iraq and occasionally uses an Arabic word for something rather than the appropriate language.

This language confusion has continued in Japan where, prior to Afghanistan, he was learning Japanese. Since returning, he confuses his Japanese and Dari because he grew accustomed to using the language of the Afghans, Mathes said.

However, he confuses the languages less now that his Dari has begin to fade because he doesn’t use it on a day-to-day basis, he says.

From Iraq to Okinawa to Afghanistan and back to Okinawa, Mathes has learned language is no barrier when it comes to leadership.