In the Army, accents tend to soften and morph into some sort of middle ground of blunt, directive bursts of military terms, acronyms and cursing that becomes an accent all its own. However, not all regional American accents can be tamed, and in the National Guard, these local accents find a home of there own. I recently saw a post from a French Infantryman's blog, which had been translated into English. In his post, he notes the mix of American accents he had to deal with saying, 'They have a very strong American accent - the language they speak seems to be not even English. How many times did I have to write down what I wanted to say rather than waste precious minutes trying various pronunciations of a seemingly common word? Whatever state they are from, no two accents are alike and they themselves admit that in some crisis situations they have difficulties understanding each other.' (The rest of the post is a good read as well, and you can read the whole thing here: http://nakedliberty.com/2010/12/a-french-infantrymans-view-of-american-soldiers/)
In my recent travels I ran into several more examples of our struggles to communicate with coalition partners, due to strong and varying US accents as well as the accents of our coalition partners. While visiting a base with a mix of Australians and Alabama national guard, this clash was brought to the forefront, during a conversation with a collection of US and Australian soldiers.
A short female sergeant with a thick Alabama accent was recounting a phone conversation she had with her Australian counterpart. After asking him to repeat himself several times, she said 'I told him, I can't understand a single fucking word you have said to me.' She was later told that the Australian soldier told a coworker that 'nobody talks to me like that but my wife.' Now whenever she calls, if he answers he just hands the phone off to an American in the office.
An Australian soldier recounted a similar tale in which he took a call from a US counterpart. "He said, 'Blah, blah, blah. I didn't quite catch it but replied, 'Blah, blah, blah.' and then he told me he couldn't understand what I was saying. I told him, well I can't understand you either, so there's no real point in us talking mate. Click." He said, as he motioned hanging up the phone. "He didn't appreciate that much, and called right back."
The conversation then turned to what the collection of guardsmen did back home when the were not deployed. A baby faced young Specialist said back home he works at a waste water treatment plant. Here in Afghanistan, he worked for a time at Kandahar Airfield, where the waste water plant is near the middle to the base and if the breeze is wrong it smothers the base it it's funk and can choke you out if you get to close. He said most people complained about the smell, 'But it didn't bother me none. Smells like money to me.' He is a generator mechanic, by trade, but when I spoke to him he was the night shift for a satellite communications office. I noted how challenging that must be and he said, "If I get a call I just tell them, 'Everyone is asleep, but I can wake them up or it can wait 'til morning.' I can't complain though, because I'm getting paid pretty good to answer the phone."
Another soldier 'moonlighting' as a satellite communications specialist, works as a trucker for a steel manufacturing and constructions company. His laid back Alabama twang, and slight beer belly under broad shoulders gave him an air that seemed like it would fit better behind the wheel of a big rig, than in an air conditioned server room in the middle of Afghanistan. But just like the French soldier noted in his blog: 'Here we discover America as it is often depicted: their values are taken to their paroxysm, often amplified by the loneliness of this outpost in the middle of that Afghan valley. Honor, motherland – everything here reminds of that: the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the postage parcels... And that is a first shock to our preconceptions: the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.'
Although the Guard soldiers have the same team ethos as the regular Army, they are unique for both the variety of fields they come from outside their military specialties, and also for the adaptability they bring to the mission. They often get parcelled out across the battle space to support regular Army units as small sections or as individual augmentees to strengthen the man power within a regular Army unit. Their broad range of skills and professional backgrounds often prove very useful in the unique mission sets they fill in a counter insurgency as well. For example, I worked with a Michigan unit (yet another unique American accent) who are supporting an Agricultural Development mission, which would be a tough mission for the regular Army that specializes in war fighting. However a guard unit brings soldiers into the mission that specialize in business and agriculture, when they are not in uniform, and those skills prove invaluable to the mission.
In my recent travels I ran into several more examples of our struggles to communicate with coalition partners, due to strong and varying US accents as well as the accents of our coalition partners. While visiting a base with a mix of Australians and Alabama national guard, this clash was brought to the forefront, during a conversation with a collection of US and Australian soldiers.
A short female sergeant with a thick Alabama accent was recounting a phone conversation she had with her Australian counterpart. After asking him to repeat himself several times, she said 'I told him, I can't understand a single fucking word you have said to me.' She was later told that the Australian soldier told a coworker that 'nobody talks to me like that but my wife.' Now whenever she calls, if he answers he just hands the phone off to an American in the office.
An Australian soldier recounted a similar tale in which he took a call from a US counterpart. "He said, 'Blah, blah, blah. I didn't quite catch it but replied, 'Blah, blah, blah.' and then he told me he couldn't understand what I was saying. I told him, well I can't understand you either, so there's no real point in us talking mate. Click." He said, as he motioned hanging up the phone. "He didn't appreciate that much, and called right back."
The conversation then turned to what the collection of guardsmen did back home when the were not deployed. A baby faced young Specialist said back home he works at a waste water treatment plant. Here in Afghanistan, he worked for a time at Kandahar Airfield, where the waste water plant is near the middle to the base and if the breeze is wrong it smothers the base it it's funk and can choke you out if you get to close. He said most people complained about the smell, 'But it didn't bother me none. Smells like money to me.' He is a generator mechanic, by trade, but when I spoke to him he was the night shift for a satellite communications office. I noted how challenging that must be and he said, "If I get a call I just tell them, 'Everyone is asleep, but I can wake them up or it can wait 'til morning.' I can't complain though, because I'm getting paid pretty good to answer the phone."
Another soldier 'moonlighting' as a satellite communications specialist, works as a trucker for a steel manufacturing and constructions company. His laid back Alabama twang, and slight beer belly under broad shoulders gave him an air that seemed like it would fit better behind the wheel of a big rig, than in an air conditioned server room in the middle of Afghanistan. But just like the French soldier noted in his blog: 'Here we discover America as it is often depicted: their values are taken to their paroxysm, often amplified by the loneliness of this outpost in the middle of that Afghan valley. Honor, motherland – everything here reminds of that: the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the postage parcels... And that is a first shock to our preconceptions: the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.'
Although the Guard soldiers have the same team ethos as the regular Army, they are unique for both the variety of fields they come from outside their military specialties, and also for the adaptability they bring to the mission. They often get parcelled out across the battle space to support regular Army units as small sections or as individual augmentees to strengthen the man power within a regular Army unit. Their broad range of skills and professional backgrounds often prove very useful in the unique mission sets they fill in a counter insurgency as well. For example, I worked with a Michigan unit (yet another unique American accent) who are supporting an Agricultural Development mission, which would be a tough mission for the regular Army that specializes in war fighting. However a guard unit brings soldiers into the mission that specialize in business and agriculture, when they are not in uniform, and those skills prove invaluable to the mission.
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