LINGUIST IN THE AIR FORCE MANUAL

Stanislas Rene Marie de Magnien de Magnienville at the Isochronal Inspection Dock at Dover AFB, Del. Amy Wilkins, a reservist assigned to the 512th Airlift Wing, Dover Air Force Base, Del., poses for a photo with French Marine Col.

Once in Vietnam, day-to-day activities included acting as a liaison between team members and Vietnamese government officials, translating for team members and locals and working with the team excavating at the designated dig site. French NATO linguist visits 512th Airlift Wing. Once selected for the assignment, Nguyen left for Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, for initial processing and mission briefing. Nguyen took the Defense Language Proficiency Test for Vietnamese and then applied for the special duty as a linguist for DPAA missions in Vietnam.

“It was interesting because I was born in the states and most linguists were born in Vietnam and then came over to the states.” Nguyen said, “For me, my parents were born there and I was born in the States so I still had ties to Vietnam.” Nguyen’s mission was to work alongside a team, closing the gap between language barriers with the host nation to help recover a missing Navy pilot in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam. The organization works under the Secretary of Defense and is an agency organized for the recovery and accounting for service members of any previous conflicts. It’s one of the world’s foremost language schools that can make you fluent quickly, whether you’re learning Arabic. The DPAA’s mission is to provide the fullest possible accounting for missing personnel to their families and the nation. That’s where the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center comes in.

LINGUIST IN THE AIR FORCE MANUAL

Joseph Nguyen, a CV-22 flight engineer in the 20th Special Operations Squadron, returned from a 30-day temporary duty assignment providing manual labor and working as a Vietnamese linguist aiding the recovery of missing military personnel. A Cannon Airman recently returned from a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency mission in Vietnam.

Linguist in the air force