They won the battle, but lost the morale

Jewish World Review ^ | May 14, 2003 | Jack Kelly

[SJackson]

NEAR THE SYRIAN BORDER, Iraq Specialist Aaron Molina is getting out of the Army to learn to be a chef. This represents a considerable loss for the Army, since it has invested about a million bucks in the 26-year-old Cleveland native.

Molina is a Russian linguist and a signals intelligence expert for the 66th Military Intelligence Company, which is part of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. He has a degree in computer science from Ohio State University. Few in the military have received more, or more expensive, training than Molina and other linguists. After basic training, there is a year or more of language instruction at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. The instruction is all by native speakers. The method is total immersion. At no university in the United States is there better instruction.

Then there is training in their particular black art, conducted chiefly at Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas.

And before the training begins, candidates must pass a thorough background check for the high security clearances Army linguists must have. This takes months and costs tens of thousands of dollars.

Molina likes his job and is very good at it. But he's getting out because, as a junior enlisted man, he spends more time sweeping the motor pool than he does doing his job.

If Molina's case were isolated, there would be no point to this column. But his case is more or less typical. The first-term retention rate among linguists is distressingly low. And it is low because these valuable assets are not being treated with the dignity they deserve.

It's understandable why Molina and the German and Spanish linguists in his unit are driving trucks and standing guard here, since their skills are not relevant in Iraq. The treatment of Sgt. Paul Olsen's wife, Kelly is less so.

Kelly is an Arab linguist, formerly part of the 66th MI Company. Paul and Kelly had a baby, Vivian, 11 months ago. Their families live far from the 3rd ACR's base of Fort Carson, Colo., so there was no relative close enough to care for Vivian if both were deployed. Kelly requested permission to remain at Fort Carson when the 3rd ACR deployed, so that she could take care of Vivian. Permission was denied. So Kelly applied for, and received, a humanitarian discharge. So instead of having Kelly at Fort Carson, where she could still perform valuable work, the Army is now another million bucks short.

The linguist retention problem could easily and inexpensively be ameliorated if a little common sense were applied. The Army, properly, offers large bonuses to young people who have the aptitude to become linguists. But it doesn't pay enough attention to the people it already has attracted, and is now turning off.

Continued.....

[SJackson]

Continued.....

The Army can't offer Molina a bonus large enough to get him to re-enlist, as long as he thinks he'll still be treated like dirt. But no bonus would be required if he were treated with the respect he thinks he deserves.

Linguists need to enter the military as privates. They are, after all, soldiers, and there are certain skills to be acquired. The Army is not a suitable profession for lateral entry. But if linguists re-enlist, they should be made warrant officers. This would provide them with greater status, and exempt them from scut details.

Moreover, when the Army has new language needs to fill, it ought to look more toward teaching linguists it already has additional languages than to recruiting new people off the street. If a language like Russian has become less important, send someone like Molina back to Monterey to learn Arabic or Dari or Pashtu. He's already been through basic, got his security clearance and learned the intricacies of his secret craft. I've never met a former DLI student who didn't love the place. The prospect of going back there would in itself be a powerful incentive to re-enlist.

[Tin-Legions]

While Ive never served with MI folks, I think that making language specialists warrants is not a bad idea-their skills are just as important-and hard to come by- as that of a maintenance warrant or a aviation warrant.

But the Army will say: why pay them as warrants when we can pay them as privates!

[Tin-Legions]

ON another note: every soldier spends their fair amount of time digging ditches-the warrants here still pull guard and staff duty, and some other crap details, just a little more respect and pay, though.

[Tallguy]

Question: Wouldn't you think that the Linguist MOS would eventually carry a warrant officer's rank. Isn't the whole purpose of the Warrant to be able to retain highly specialized individuals through higher compensation? Perhaps this soldier is still too junior to be considered...

[MineralMan]

"While Ive never served with MI folks, I think that making language specialists warrants is not a bad idea-their skills are just as important-and hard to come by- as that of a maintenance warrant or a aviation warrant.

But the Army will say: why pay them as warrants when we can pay them as privates!"

Right you are. I was a Russian linguist in the USAF, during the late 60s. At the end of my first enlistment, I was an E-3, making $256/mo. At the time I was working alongside civilians who were doing the same job as GS-13s. I remember the interview where a USAF Captain tried to convince me that I should re-enlist. I laughed in his face.

I had the same extensive training as described above, and once trained, the USAF got less than 18 months of my service in that specialty.

Warrant officer rank is warranted for such specialties, I think. There would be better retention and less loss of experts, not just linguists, but in other specialties. Instead, the military loses these folks just about the time they get pretty good at their jobs.

Stupid.

[OldFriend]

There are always those who think they are entitled to special treatment. He's hardly a good soldier.

Just my opinion, of course.

[joesnuffy]

wait till he gets abused as a cooking student and junior chef
BWAHAHAHAHAHA

[44magnum]

I can sympathize with this guy. I graduated from the DLI Russian School and spent three years at Ft. Riley working in the motor pool. Language skills are perishable and therefore linguists need constant refresher training. Our CO's were more concerned about vehicle maintenance than language skills. As a whole, the MI linguists are better educated than the average soldier. My unit had two law school grads who joined to learn a new language. Both of them said that they would have re enlisted if they had been allowed to do what they were trained to to. Luckily for me, I was able to escape the motor pool and get a better Russian-language assignement in DC in another agency. I spent 12 years on active duty but couldn't get promoted so I left. In three years tiem, I have tripled my pay basically doing the same job I did in the Army.

[AndrewSshi]

The problem with retaining linguists is that they generally do not have the mindset of "lifers." I was a 2673 (Korean linguist) and, at the end of my enlistment, I turned down a re-enlistment bonus that came out to somewhere close to $20k (multiple of 4) and a possible chance to get into Yonsei University at USMC expense (yes, it's competitive, but I was good). I was having a blast, and I had just made Sergeant, so I could get out of just about any dirty work that needed doing.

I nonetheless declined to re-enlist. Why? What was offered had little to do with it; I doubt that even the opportunity to become a Warrant Officer would have made a difference. I declined to re-enlist because my career goal in life was to be a medievalist. I did my time in the Marine Corps both out of a desire to serve my country and to grow personally, but, my initial five years having been completed, I don't really think there is anything that could have gotten me to re-enlist.

As a coda, I was recently accepted by the Medieval Studies programs from both the University of Toronto and Catholic University of America. I think too that my story is at least somewhat representative of military linguists.

[AndrewSshi]

Addendum: Should read "Medieval Studies graduate programs..."

[MineralMan]

"The problem with retaining linguists is that they generally do not have the mindset of "lifers.""

You're right about that, certainly. I was offered a GS-11 position when I declined to re-enlist in the USAF as an E-3. I decided at that time that I didn't want to do the work I had been doing, even though the pay for a GS-11 was pretty good for the late 60s.

Instead, I returned to school and went in another direction. Still, there were several other linguists in my unit who would have re-upped if there had been some sort of incentive to do so.

It is a shame to lose folks with such a specialized skill, just at the time when they're beginning to be able to use it effectively. The DLI schools are very good, but the real training is on the job, once you get the basics of the language down.

I always thought that WO status was the key that would have led to retention of more of these linguists. But who knows?

[Tin-Legions]

Signal guys leave at high rates also. Yep, the military does huge disservice to alot of the technical fields.

Im leaving the service for a $9,000 per annum pay cut. Im just a few weeks from my captain promotion, and only 12 years from retirement. But Im headed off to do law enforcement for my mid sized county back home. This should tell you that not much has changed since your time.

I cannot even fathom spending one extra day doing the nonsense I do every day. It makes me sick to think of it.

[NFOShekky]

I agree with WO status. They do it for helicopter pilots and the language training is probably of equal cost.

[OldFriend]

The Army is a world unto itself. No logic at all, but it is what it is......designed to kill people and destroy things.

I know of what I speak......my son graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor of science in Biological Sciences and a minor in history.

When he went into the army they put him in ordnance...in other words...BOMBS......well, it does start with the same letter as BIOLOGY......LOL

[MineralMan]

"Signal guys leave at high rates also. Yep, the military does huge disservice to alot of the technical fields.

Im leaving the service for a $9,000 per annum pay cut. Im just a few weeks from my captain promotion, and only 12 years from retirement. But Im headed off to do law enforcement for my mid sized county back home. This should tell you that not much has changed since your time.
"

Well, like many bureaucratic organizations, a lot slips through the cracks. In the military, especially, some of their most talented personnel leave due to impatience with some of the more antiquated policies.

In the enlisted ranks, especially the lower grades, the ridiculous is often rampant. I remember being transferred from an overseas assignment to a stateside one. While waiting for my new job assignment as a linguist at that facility, I did a solid 2 weeks of KP, 12 hours a day. After that, I had some senior NCO try to make me scrape wax from the dayroom floor with a single-edged razor blade. When I pointed out the 5-gallon bucket of wax remover, he told me that I was a smart-a** and to do what I was told. I simply refused and used the wax remover. There it is, I suppose.

The saddest thing about these difficult specialties is that the first term of enlistment is just the beginning. In the linguistic field, after 1 year of intensive language instruction, plus other training, the linguist is assigned to a position and really begins learning. By the end of the term of enlistment, most are just coming up to speed at the job they were trained to do. It's a difficult one. Then...they leave, just as they're able to do the job, to be replaced by another newby. It's ridiculous.

I know the pay's higher these days, but not enough in comparison to what a similarly-trained specialist earns in the private sector. Something needs to be done, but there's a bias in the military against using the WO status, it seems. I never understood that.

[MineralMan]

"I know of what I speak......my son graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor of science in Biological Sciences and a minor in history.

When he went into the army they put him in ordnance...in other words...BOMBS......well, it does start with the same letter as BIOLOGY......LOL"

Well, I hope things are changing. There's a heck of a lot of waste in the military. By reducing that waste, we'd be able to do a lot more with the people we have.

[mass55th]

Correct. It's called starting at the bottom and working your way up. Seniority comes with time in position and performance. Part of being a soldier (and sometimes just a plain old employee) means having to do jobs we don't care for. It's considered part of the paycheck. Besides how many people with degrees in a certain area, end up being able to use them? I've got a masters in a civil war related topic, and I work in the uniform staff of the NY State prison system. My degree didn't help me one bit and it probably never will. My oldest son has a liberal arts degree, and after working as a train dispatcher for Conrail for 6 years, he quit to open his own business as a web designer, graphic artist, and Apple Technical Consultant. You get out of a job what you put into it.

[OldFriend]

My son did an outstanding job with the mission with which he was charged. He received the highest evaluations possible and was promoted at the earliest possible time.

His attitude has always been to do the very best at whatever it is........and he did and does.

[MineralMan]

"My son did an outstanding job with the mission with which he was charged. He received the highest evaluations possible and was promoted at the earliest possible time.
His attitude has always been to do the very best at whatever it is........and he did and does.

"

Sounds like he was brought up right! Congratulations!