Member Supports U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC)

In preparation for any assignment, the NLSC Operations team searches the membership for the ideal person(s) to provide language support to the client agency. Recently, the NLSC was asked by the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) to provide Vietnamese language support during a six-week mission to search for Americans that remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. The type of person JPAC was looking for would be willing to volunteer tireless hours, work in hot and humid conditions, interpret and translate from English to Vietnamese and Vietnamese to English, and even pitch in with the field work. The requirements of the assignment trickled in, but the NLSC Vietnamese candidates stood by for more details. The nature of NLSC assignments can change as clients learn the full capabilities of the NLSC’s Members. That is, Members are not simply interpreters or translators; some are former government employees with language skills; others are teachers or professionals who simply want to help when a need arises.

One out of 172 Vietnamese-speakers in the membership pool, Trang Tieu—a Charter Member since 2009—was selected to support the JPAC assignment. As a Navy reservist, Trang is no stranger to working in austere conditions; however, what set her apart was her positive attitude, open mind, and her willingness to take on the unknown. By accepting the assignment, she committed not only to providing Vietnamese language support, but also fully integrating herself into the JPAC recovery team responsible for excavating ground and aircraft crash sites. She even deployed with the advanced party from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii in route to Vietnam.

During her assignment, Trang often reiterated to the NLSC staff that it was an experience of a lifetime. Members, like Trang, exemplify the stellar language service support available to augment a federal agency’s operations through the NLSC.