WASHINGTON: Hassan Etemadi learned English from watching American movies in his rural village of Ghazni, Afghanistan. When U.S. troops arrived in his village in the early 2000s, he helped them communicate with his neighbors. The U.S Army offered him a job as their translator. “At first it was very intense to start working with Americans,” said Etemadi. “My family was not happy about it. My neighbors were not happy about it.”
Etemadi’s village did not understand why the Americans were in Afghanistan, but Etemadi said after speaking with U.S troops, he believed in the mission: to bring freedom and peace to Afghanistan. He said he risked his life each day he worked with the Army. “Anytime you go to those missions, there was always the possibility you could be killed,” said Etemadi. “Any time we were in the mission, we could either be blown up by a roadside bomb, a convoy, or ambush.”
Mohammed Iqbal arrived in San Francisco on Saturday. He waited since 2013 for a Special Services Visa for his work as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. When he first arrived to his first stop in Seattle, he was held by U.S. Customs & Border Protection. “They keep me about 2, 3 hour and they didn’t ask me any question,” said Iqbal. He, too, faced near death situations working alongside American troops on missions that sometimes took them to war zones.
