The word came over a scratchy comm at Bravo Company's combat outpost in Marjah:
"I just saw Kanye West in the market."
As fanciful as that might seem, it was true.
Kanye West was in the Marjah market. And he definitely was not supposed to be there.
Kanye West was the nickname the Bravo Company Marines from the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment gave to one of the Afghan soldiers who followed them into battle.
And, there he was, out in the Koru market when he was supposed to be on the base.
Nicknames abound out here.
Another Afghan soldier was known as Akon.
Why these guys were given these names wasn't quite clear. Or, at least, the connection seemed rather tenuous.
Other nicknames, though, were more apt.
One young Afghan interpreter has been branded, for unfortunate reasons, "No Good."
Another interpreter, known collectively as 'Terps, was known for spicing up his translations with an over-abundance of curse words. The Marines call him "Roadie."
Some 'Terps take on the dangerous job for the chance to get an American visa in a year or two. Others come from America for the money.
All of them face unenviable risks as they drop into battlefields with Marines, go out on foot patrols with soldiers, and camp out at isolated checkpoints with Afghan police.
Scores have been killed.
A couple of Afghan-American 'Terps that I met in Marjah were back in their native country for the first time in 20 or 30 years. Yet they can't go visit their families because of the dangers their relatives would face if word about their work with the US military got to the wrong people.
Just as "fixers" are an integral part of the success of most journalists who work in places where they don't speak the language, 'Terps are essential to the success of the US military in Afghanistan.
They can literally be the difference between life and death.
In one case, Reuters reported last year, a mistranslation led to fatal results when a 'Terp told an Afghan unit to "fire" instead of "cease-fire."
“Your interpreter is way more important than your weapon,” Cory Schulz, an Army major who led a tactical team embedded with Afghan troops, told Registan blogger Joshua Foust.
Bold emphasis mine
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