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CAMP SHORABAK, Afghanistan - Charged with aiding the 215th Corps Afghan National Army in improving their skills, Marine Corps Advisory Teams work side by side with their Afghan counterparts.
Working so close and often with them can build relationships, some soldiers and Marines have a closer relationship than others. Lance Cpl. Christopher Lynch and Sgt. Shafieullah share such a relationship.
“When I first came in here, it was just like meeting someone new,” said Lynch, an aviation electrician. “Over time we just kind of started talking more, we joke around, just goof off and became really good friends.”
“We share a lot of laughs now,” said Shafieullah. “ I remember when Lynch and another sergeant were playing a game on the computer and Lynch lost. He was so mad, but we all laughed about it.”
Garnering such a friendship has allowed the two to move forward in learning new skills.
“Our whole job over here is to advise,” said Lynch, a member of the 215th Corps Advisory Team. “We come over here to Shorabak to teach them not how to do a new job, but how to do their job a little better.”
Lynch advises Shafieullah and others in the unit how to repair computers and keep them maintained for the rest of the staff. He has been working with Shafieullah since he arrived in country back in January, and during that time has impressed Shafieullah.
“Lynch is a very hardworking person, a very hardworking guy,” said Shafieullah. “He has helped us a lot, he has shown me a lot of techniques about the computers.”
“Our previous advisors taught us about the radios, but we didn’t understand about the computers and printers,” he added. “Lynch showed me how to open the printers, fix them and how to open computers and fix them as well as basic troubleshooting.”
The teaching and learning is not one sided though, Lynch has picked up a few things from his Afghan counterpart as well.
“He’s taught me more Dari, I don’t always have a linguist in here with me,” said Lynch. “We just communicated by him pointing to things and me figuring it out. So I began to learn more Dari by picking it up.”
“I don’t really know how to work on radios, just watching him work on them, I learned more about radios,” added Lynch.
Lynch is halfway through his deployment, and with the way things are going and the relationships built, one can only think things will go nowhere but up.
“We are working like brothers in here,” said Shafieullah. “Like partners.”
| Date Taken: | 08.27.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 08.27.2012 07:24 |
| Story ID: | 93850 |
| Location: | CAMP SHORABAK, AF |
| Web Views: | 386 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Afghan soldier, Marine share unique friendship, by Cpl Anthony Ward Jr, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
