The 52nd Interpreter/Translator Company (ITCO) activates March 16 under the administrative control of 1st Battalion, 353rd Infantry Regiment, 162nd Infantry Training Brigade.
The 52nd ITCO prepares and deploys translator/interpreter Soldiers as individuals or small groups to provide “native heritage” translation, interpretation and cultural advice to Army, Joint, Special Operation Forces and select inter-agency organizations.
Additionally, the ITCO is poised to assist combat advisors from the Army, Navy and Air Force that are conducting specialty-based training as part of the Foreign Security Force mission on North Fort Polk to deploy to the Iraq and Afghan theaters of operation.
The 52nd is one of only two translator/interpreter companies in the Army, along with the 51st ITCO, based at Fort Irwin, Calif.
According to Army officials, the program fills a need to recruit native and heritage Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Kurdish, and Pashto speakers directly into the Individual Ready Reserve, regular Army, Army Reserve, and the Army National Guard.
Program participants must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents and complete a national agency check with local file and credit checks (equivalent to a background check for security clearances). However, the 09L Military Occupational Specialty (translator/interpreters) does not require a clearance. Additionally, Intelligence Security Command conducts counterintelligence screening of all recruits to ensure 09Ls that are recruited are working in the best interest of the U.S. and the services they support.
Translator/interpreters serve as personal interpreters for colonels and general officers, participate in convoys and urban operations, work military police check points and train host nation security forces.
They also provide translations during negotiations, interpret during interrogations, accompany tactical human intelligence teams, offer rotational training support to the Joint Readiness Training Center, establish survival course materials for deploying forces, implement language and regional familiarization, and create courses for emerging language needs and more.
