FORT DRUM, N.Y. (June 8, 2017) -- Cpl. Christine Davis, a cryptologic linguist with 41st Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, had just returned to her company after finishing another day of language refresher training when her first sergeant called everyone from D Company together for an announcement.
Capt. Leland Bauer, company commander, informed them that Davis had been named U.S. Army Forces Command Linguist Professional of the Year.
"I was surprised and very honored at the same time that I made it that far," Davis said. "I didn't
even know this competition existed until my first sergeant brought it to my attention. I'm very grateful that he thought that I had the ability and potential to compete."
Davis had advanced from 10th Mountain Division (LI) level to the XVIII Airborne Corps-level competition before submitting her packet to FORSCOM, which included proficiency test scores and an essay.
Davis said that she developed an interest in foreign languages at an early age. Her parents served as medical missionaries, and they raised her in the West African country of Cameroon.
"It's a French-speaking country, and I grew up with a lot of exposure to a lot of different languages in the area," she said. "I didn't know much of them, but I could say things like 'hi.' I think I knew French fairly well, just because I was immersed in that language. Then I returned to the United States when I was 13 and began losing those skills."
She began studying languages in college while pursuing a major in international studies. Her degree required two years of language -- Davis chose Japanese -- but she also took a semester each of Russian, Chinese and French.
Her husband had just transitioned out of the U.S. Coast Guard when Davis earned her degree.
"I always thought being a linguist would be an interesting job, and so I enlisted to become one," she said. "I wanted to learn a new language and maybe get the opportunity to see a little more of the world."
Davis enlisted in 2012 and attended the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey, Calif., to study Pashto, the Iranian language spoken in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"I didn't know what Pashto was," she said. "But when you go to DLI, it's total immersion and all the instructors are native speakers, so that makes it easier to learn a new language."
After 18 months of immersive language training, she completed additional coursework to graduate with an associate's degree in foreign language. Davis received cryptologic linguist training at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas. Her first duty station was in Germany, where she was assigned to 1st Military Intelligence Battalion, 66th MI Brigade. When that unit inactivated, she was reassigned to Fort Drum in July 2015.
Davis said that linguists in her platoon are usually assigned with a multi-function team that includes HUMIT, or human intelligence, collectors. A cryptologic linguist uses signals equipment to detect and identify foreign communication and applies translation expertise to transcribe trans-
missions into English.
"Since I've been at Fort Drum, we've been doing a lot of training for our jobs," she said. "Because we're in the United States and not deployed, we can't actually do our job unless we have a mission. So we are constantly training, and we have an excellent facility we call the Foundry that prepares us with different (military occupational specialty)-specific classes and learn more about the equipment."
She said that the linguists in her platoon are also able to conduct language training at least once a week at the Language and Cultural Awareness Center (LCAC) on post to maintain their skills. Davis said that having a native speaker of Pashto at the center is a great advantage for her, especially now that she is in the monthlong language refresher course before taking annual testing.
"He's having me watch the news and transcribe from it, read newspaper articles and work on vocabulary to get where I need to be to pass the Defense Language Proficiency Test," Davis said. "I'm lucky that I have a unit and leadership that sees how important it is to have opportunities to be exposed to your language and makes sure we are given the time to go to the LCAC."
Davis won't know how she fared at the Department of the Army-level competition until after the June 16 deadline for submissions, but senior leaders will present her with the FORSCOM award during the annual Mountainfest celebration June 21 at Fort Drum.
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