Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [152]
“Religion is the overriding cultural value in some societies. Understand their beliefs and mythology and learn to avoid things that offend. Customs in many places have the force of law. In a Muslim country, T and A is toes and ankles. In Nigeria, I once had to eat the heart, eyes, and brains of a goat. It was their delicacy and presented to me as a point of honor. I not only ate it, I relished it.” He gives the class a helpless shrug. “Tastes just like chicken. In northern Iraq, they dropped us a pallet of corn for our Kurdish fighters. Kurds don’t eat corn—it’s pig food. They used the corn as a helo landing-zone marker. In southern Turkey, there is no toilet paper in rural areas—just a bottle of water in what passes for a toilet. That’s why in some cultures, they only eat with one hand. After an experience like that, you never go anywhere without a personal stash of TP.
“Don’t overlook the interaction of culture in their family structure. Study their family customs. Know the role of women, children, and old people in their culture. Age is a virtue and measure of respect in some cultures. We value individualism and privacy. Not all cultures do; Asian cultures value the group over the individual. In some cultures, face is important—we Americans are direct, no matter what. And freedom underlies all our values. In some societies and families, freedom is way down on the list. But make no mistake about it, honoring their family traditions and cultural norms is one of the best ways to gain their goodwill and trust.
“Be very careful if the conversation is about religion, politics, personal questions, and geography. You can get into trouble really fast because it’s often not what you say or mean, it’s what they hear and understand. And be careful not to take offense when they mean no offense. For us, time is a biggie. We are punctual and value time; not so elsewhere. You leave the United States, and time takes on a whole new perspective. Most of the people you will work with will not own a wristwatch.
“We have to work extra hard, because we in America are very ethnocentric—we think our culture is superior. Why’s that? It’s because we’ve got moon rocks, and nobody else has moon rocks. This ethnocentricity breeds discrimination and disrespect; it can get in the way if your mission is by, with, and through another culture. And in SF, we have to work extra hard because our business usually involves guns. Are there any genuine U.S. Army squad leaders out there?” A few hands go up. “When you get a bunch of newly trained trivets from Fort Benning assigned to your squad, do you watch them pretty closely during their first time on the range? You bet you do. How about when you and another SF sergeant take one hundred of your non-English-speaking, new best friends out for a few hours of rifle training before you go trade real bullets with the enemy? Get your heart going? Maybe a little. Think it might help if you understand something of their culture and where they’re coming from? You’re going to see it all over there. Afghan militiamen often take their young sons with them on operations—six-year-olds with automatic weapons. I was four days in country on my first operation. A five-year-old gets off the truck with a bandoleer of ammo and a Makarov pistol—and he could handle it.
“Now, many of you are just wanting to know what you need to get by for Robin Sage. Never forget, Robin Sage is training wheels for the real thing. And for some of you guys from New York and California, Pineland really is a foreign culture. Robin Sage, and what you will see overseas, is all about rapport. It’s about negotiation; it’s about listening; it’s about putting