Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Shane Klestinski | Soldiers assigned to the Florida Army National Guard’s 260th Military Intelligence...... read more read more
Soldiers of the Florida Army National Guard’s 260th Military Intelligence (MI) Battalion (Linguist) competed in the 300th Military Intelligence Brigade’s 7th annual Best Linguist Competition in Salt Late City, Utah, Feb. 5-7.
The competition took place simultaneously with the 36th annual Language Conference, also known as “LangCon,” as an integrated part of its itinerary. LangCon is the largest U.S. gathering for military, intelligence, national security and academic institutions dedicated to training and employing intelligence linguists.
The contest attracted over 100 national security organizations, represented by 280 competitors across 40 teams to test their skills in both team and individual challenges.
The 260th MI Battalion (Linguist), headquartered in Miami, provides foreign language support (translation and interpretation) to federal missions for commander analysis and interrogation. It essentially acts as a key unit for intelligence gathering, logistical analysis, and liaison support in regions where multiple languages are spoken.
According to Army Lt. Col. Harvey Rocha, the 260th’s commander, the contest seeks to gather Soldiers who specialize in foreign languages in a forum where they can demonstrate their skills. It also helps identify resources and training focuses to enhance those language skills, while bringing together members in the foreign language-based intelligence community to network, improve competencies, and build esprit de corps.
The 260th’s team consisted of over 12 competitors. They arrived and checked in on Feb.5 and received their program outline to best prepare for the challenge. The second day focused on the Best Linguist Competition’s actual execution when Soldiers completed the “lanes” of exercises that displayed their abilities. On the final day, contest officials delivered results and presented awards after making final judgments.
“Competitions like this improve us by capturing, marketing and selling our ability to use language skills as a [military occupational specialty] skill set,” Rocha said. “Between our competitors and our language program managers onsite, getting that feedback allows us to identify areas where we need to make necessary adjustments in our language training and exposes us to new language training resources. This contest also inspires our younger Soldiers with developing skills to know and see they can work up and apply their skills in future competitions.”
After officials tallied the results, Army Sgt. David Focil, a human intelligence collector (also referred to as a “35M”) assigned to the 260th, distinguished himself in the competition by taking first place in the “Overall Best Linguist,” Best Spanish Linguist,” and “Best Lower Enlisted Linguist” categories.
Focil immigrated to the United States from Ecuador with his family when he was 3 years old. He grew up in the U.S. speaking both English and Spanish with native fluency, later obtained his U.S. citizenship and joined the Army National Guard, initially serving as an infantryman in the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team. He later reclassified into the intelligence field and reported to the 260th MI Battalion in 2022. In his civilian life, Focil works as an immigration attorney where he often speaks Spanish with his clients, and he analyzes legal documents written in Spanish.
“The cool thing about human intelligence [collection] is that you’re dealing with people,” Focil said. “You’re not just stuck in an office somewhere and looking at a computer. It gives me that feeling that I’m out there and doing things [as a Soldier].”
2025 represents the second year Focil has attended the competition. He prepared for this year’s challenge by examining the study guide that contest officials sent to competitors, which included field manual references, a description of events from the previous year’s contest, and an outline of what candidates should expect.
“A lot of the events involved some form of documents or audio in the target language,” Focil said. “I’d listen to a radio communication, understand what it meant in English, and then answer questions on the content, whether it was missile launches or technical data for weapons systems.”
Focil said the competition was useful in improving skills in source operations for intelligence collection and keeping language skills current. He explained that the contest allows intelligence linguists to apply both disciplines for more realistic training scenarios.
“With the competition, you also get to identify your weak areas,” Focil said. “Last year, we had technical data with certain equipment designations, and I didn’t know all those terms in Spanish because that’s not my usual experience where I usually engage the language. This year, I was more attuned to that, so the contest gives you a check on how you need you to apply your language skills to your Army job, especially when it comes to intel work.”
A new assessment event at this year’s competition involved placing vans in hotel ballrooms, turning out the lights, and requiring competitors to use night-vision goggles in a scenario wherein they come across a vehicle with unsecured documents. Using simulated, “rubber duck” rifles, Soldiers secured the area while team members went through documents written in foreign languages, while dealing with various sound and light effects.
“That was really fun for me, having an infantry background,” Focil said. “You’re in a team, you’re moving, and you’re thinking about security but you’re also thinking about getting the right documents – and trying to do it with time constraints. The scenario is that you could come under fire, so you need to get out of there pretty quickly. I thought that was really cool and it was my favorite part of the contest.”
According to Rocha, the Best Linguist Competition represents the highest level of foreign language-centric intelligence competition for uniformed Department of Defense (DOD) personnel. In addition to Army service components, he said the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps also had representation in the contest, which attracted over 1200 attendees total.
“Considering that the National Guard has the only linguist brigade in the entire Army inventory, among all three components, it’s great to see the exposure of a 35M linguist’s abilities and skill sets so the active and reserve components can see and understand the value of our capabilities,” Rocha said. “Other units in other components have 35Ms, but they aren’t linguists.”
Rocha explained that more recently, this has resulted in new opportunities for Guard units to provide integrated support and participate in other Title 32 missions with the Army Reserve. He said this has established a new relationship between the components, and they are in the process of what Rocha calls “phase one” of codifying memos of understanding and memos of agreement.
“It’s great that we have this competition to attend,” Rocha said. “It helps present ourselves and market our Soldiers for other components, because the end objective is to facilitate mission support to the DOD broader spectrum of combatant commands.”
| Date Taken: | 02.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.04.2025 07:23 |
| Story ID: | 491627 |
| Location: | SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, US |
| Web Views: | 224 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 260th Military Intelligence Battalion Soldier takes three titles in Best Linguist Competition, by SFC Shane Klestinski, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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