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| Iraqi lessons: After a year in Iraq, Army Lt. Jason Faler has started his own foundation. courtesy of Jason Faler |
A soldier's quest to save Iraqi, Afghan interpreters
Targeted by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, they find a haven in America.
from the May 7, 2008 edition
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Reporter Jill Carroll explains why a US Iraq veteran has formed a foundation to help bring Iraqi and Afghani interpreters to America.
When Faler was deployed to Iraq in January 2005, he never expected to start a foundation. He worked long days and nights with Walid and a handful of other interpreters at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, helping to translate high-level meetings between US and Iraqi officials, among other things. A native Oregonian, he fit in particularly well. Married to an Egyptian-Lebanese woman he met while studying at the American University in Cairo, he spoke Arabic with the soft lilt of the Lebanese.
"As he spoke directly [to Iraqis in Arabic], it helped open a lot of doors" to top Iraqi officials, says Lt. Col. John Burke, who was Faler's commander during their year tour in Iraq and whose adamant support helped Faler win the Bronze Star Medal, awarded for heroic or meritorious service in combat.
Holed up for months together, working long days and nights, Faler began to make friends with the Iraqi interpreters. Faler tucked baby gifts, sent from his wife, in Walid's locker at the ministry after Walid's wife had a baby. Walid, who goes by a pseudonym to protect relatives still living in Iraq, prayed for Faler when Faler volunteered for a risky mission in northern Iraq.
"When we were deployed, they shared stories of their families. They'd sneak pictures in to show me and I'd give them pictures and they'd sneak them out to show their family," says Faler. "A bond like brotherhood developed. It was bittersweet when I left. There was a bit of survivor's guilt."
"We became like one family, his family and my family," says Walid. "He is the only guy I trust.... He was the only one who knew where I lived exactly" in Iraq.
Seven months after Faler returned to the US, the Iraqi interpreters e-mailed him asking if he could help them get special visas to the US available to Iraqi and Afghan interpreters who had worked for the US military.
There was just one hitch. The military was only issuing 50 for both theaters of operation. "And I'm going to get my guys in?" Faler remembers thinking. "But I didn't tell them my doubts."
Faler researched the visas and helped them with the piles of paperwork and the largest obstacle – obtaining a general's signature on a letter vouching for the interpreters.
Knowing there were scores more like them, Faler started working on a broader scale. He studied the complex refugee application process, raised money, and organized resources until he formally started the Checkpoint One Foundation.
Life isn't necessarily easy for the interpreters once they arrive in the US. Walid tries to keep the difficult memories of what he witnessed in Iraq at bay as he struggles to make ends meet in his new life.
"We came here to start over. No bombs, no blood, no violence," he says.
A few weeks ago Walid's daughter, the artist of the family, drew a picture for Faler.
It was a rendering of a photo – the same photo that Faler had given Walid once he'd returned from Iraq after seeing his son for the first time. The drawing shows Faler in uniform, his wife in a hospital bed, and a tiny boy wrapped in a blanket between them.
"It's framed in my house," Faler says.
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