Time transcripts of AustinLITaudio

[00:00:00:00]	{Ok, can you tell me first about your relationship

[00:00:04:00]	to the military?} I'm in the military.

[00:00:08:00]	And I'm currently deployed in Afghanistan.

[00:00:12:00]	I'm a 68Whiskey, which is a medic.

[00:00:16:00]	in the Army [...] and

[00:00:20:00]	yeah. {Can you explain why, um, a medic in the Army

[00:00:24:00]	is described as a 68 Whiskey?}

[00:00:28:00]	Uh, it's just our, uh, identifier in our

[00:00:32:00]	uh, MOS. Each MOS

[00:00:36:00]	has its own identifer. Infantry is 11 Bravo,

[00:00:40:00]	uh, Field Artilery would be 13 Bravo,

[00:00:44:00]	Special Forces is the 18 series: 18

[00:00:48:00]	Alpha through Foxtrot

[00:00:52:00]	So there can be all sorts of MOS's with a simple

[00:00:56:00]	identifier, instead of saying your whole job title. {And

[00:01:00:00]	MOS stands for..?} Military Occupation Specialty.

[00:01:04:00]	{Ok, and what do you mean by 'Alpha to

[00:01:08:00]	Foxtrot'? Can you explain that?} Well, there's 

[00:01:12:00]	18 Alpha, 18 Bravo, 18 Charlie, just like there's 68 Whiskey.

[00:01:16:00]	And it just identifies each role

[00:01:20:00]	{What does Alpha stand for?} Just Alpha, 18

[00:01:24:00]	Alpha. It's just a code, it's not, it doesn't actually mean anything.

[00:01:28:00]	other than that person's job. 18 Alpha would be a

[00:01:32:00]	Special Forces Captain [...]

[00:01:36:00]	{Ok, can you tell me about an exchange, um, you

[00:01:40:00]	shared with someone while you were in the military, maybe while you were deployed

[00:01:44:00]	and your ability or inability to communicate with

[00:01:48:00]	that person inside of that context of the military?}

[00:01:52:00]	Like, talking about the military [...]?

[00:01:56:00]	Talking about the military or situation?

[00:02:00:00]	{Um, whatever you feel...}

[00:02:04:00]	Well, ability to communicate between, like,

[00:02:08:00]	the medics to the infantry men [...] tends 

[00:02:12:00]	to be a little messed up. Uh, you know, they'll, they'll be

[00:02:16:00]	they'll spout words out that I've never heard before

[00:02:20:00]	and, you know, I have to ask sometimes, but I also

[00:02:24:00]	do the same thing [...] when, you know, when I'm 

[00:02:28:00]	talking about a certain medical equipment or I tell them to go

[00:02:32:00]	do something and they just don't understand, I have to be more elaborate.

[00:02:36:00]	Just like with me, they have to, you know, if they need me to go help with a weapon

[00:02:40:00]	you know, sometimes I don't know what that weapon is. If you say Mark 19,

[00:02:44:00]	I didn't know what that was at first. Well, of course, I now 

[00:02:48:00]	know, but, and then, you know, they [...]

[00:02:52:00]	take it apart and calling it all these crazy things

[00:02:56:00]	It just takes time to learn. {Um, can you explain the

[00:03:00:00]	difference? So you were [...] the difference between your position and a, what did you

[00:03:04:00]	say, an infantry man?} Yeah. {Like, you have different

[00:03:08:00]	languages?} Well, essentially. Like, of course

[00:03:12:00]	everything we say medically, they're going to be like, "Huh?"

[00:03:16:00]	Some of them are a little more educated, and

[00:03:20:00]	if they've been in the, if they've been in the military longer

[00:03:24:00]	um, so, you know, a lot of them understand that first

[00:03:28:00]	responder role because they've been dealing with it for so long, and

[00:03:32:00]	going through OIF and OEF

[00:03:36:00]	and they just kind of went through hell and back, and that's kind of

[00:03:40:00]	where they learned a lot of my MOS.

[00:03:44:00]	{What does, um, can you explain OIF and

[00:03:48:00]	OEF? {Yes.} OIF's Operation Iraqi Freedom, and

[00:03:52:00]	OEF's Operation Enduring Freedom. Each one represents

[00:03:56:00]	the mission for the country we're in. OIF

[00:04:00:00]	is, of course, for Iraq, and OEF's for Afghanistan.

[00:04:04:00]	And there's a new one for Iraq, I can't remember

[00:04:08:00]	It's like 'New Freedom," or something. Some stupid operation

[00:04:12:00]	{Ok, um [...]

[00:04:16:00]	Can you tell me about an exchange you had with someone outside of that

[00:04:20:00]	military and your communication with them?}

[00:04:24:00]	Well [...] 

[00:04:28:00]	Talking to anyone, I generally have to

[00:04:32:00]	kind of make, you know, I have to remind myself to make it kind

[00:04:36:00]	of 'military dumb' in a way.

[00:04:40:00]	Elaborate on everything I say, you know. Someone's not going

[00:04:44:00]	to understand when I said, you know, "I threw the embedder out." Embedder 

[00:04:48:00]	is just a little radio. Or

[00:04:52:00]	I don't even know what that stands for, but it is an acronym for something.

[00:04:56:00]	And, or, even if I'm talking about something

[00:05:00:00]	medically, you know. Even in the civilian world the 

[00:05:04:00]	medical stuff is still the same, so if I'm talking to someone

[00:05:08:00]	medical, they tend to understand what I'm talking about, but

[00:05:12:00]	once we start going more into the military thing, you know,

[00:05:16:00]	most people don't know what I'm talking about. "What's an M4?"

[00:05:20:00]	"It's a weapon! Everyone has one!" Like, what are you? Crazy?

[00:05:24:00]	Type thing. {Can you explain

[00:05:28:00]	a specific exchange with a certain person?}

[00:05:32:00]	[...]

[00:05:36:00]	{If not, we can go on to the next question.}

[00:05:40:00]	I don't know. Uhh [...] 

[00:05:44:00]	I don't have a specific one that I remember, but, you know, just maybe walking

[00:05:48:00]	through the airport, someone will ask me how I'm doing, and

[00:05:52:00]	you know, maybe they'll ask me a question about how it is over

[00:05:56:00]	there, and I'll, you know, I'll be like, "Oh, it's 

[00:06:00:00]	fun. We were, you know. We're stuck out at a COP

[00:06:04:00]	for a lot of the time, and then we get to go back to our FOB and relax

[00:06:08:00]	And they're like, "COP? FOB? What do you mean?"

[00:06:12:00]	And, our COP would be a small check point where, you know,

[00:06:16:00]	we're pretty much secluded from everyone except for about

[00:06:20:00]	20 guys, you know? And we're out in the middle of no where just

[00:06:24:00]	you know [...] vulnerable.

[00:06:28:00]	Going from that to a FOB. FOB would be kind of a bigger base

[00:06:32:00]	with, you know, about 400 personnel or more.

[00:06:36:00]	[...] So. FOB is Forward 

[00:06:40:00]	Operating Base, if you were wondering. {Thank you, um,

[00:06:44:00]	how was, how do you think your literacy

[00:06:48:00]	was affected when you joined the Army, when you joined the military?}

[00:06:52:00]	[...] Mmmm, I cuss

[00:06:56:00]	more. {Ok, can you elaborate on that? Um, the

[00:07:00:00]	relationship between foul language and the military?}

[00:07:04:00]	Well, you know, you're [...]

[00:07:08:00]	not so much when you're back home, and you're just doing

[00:07:12:00]	training and, you know, I mean, even then. But

[00:07:16:00]	we don't cuss as much [...] when we're

[00:07:20:00]	kind of fresh into the military. And, you know, you go to

[00:07:24:00]	Afghanistan once, you [...] Fuck is just the common language

[00:07:28:00]	It's what you say. And pretty much

[00:07:32:00]	You go through every word. You could imagine, but, you know,

[00:07:36:00]	the F-bomb's the big one that we tend to use almost all the time

[00:07:40:00]	for everything. {Ok,

[00:07:44:00]	do you have anything else that you would like to elaborate on?}

[00:07:48:00]	I don't even remember that last question...

[00:07:52:00]	{How was your literacy affected when you joined the military?} Oh, ok, yeah yeah, that's what

[00:07:56:00]	it was! Um,

[00:08:00:00]	it hasn't gotten worse. It's not like my vocabulary's worse

[00:08:04:00]	or anything, it's just, you know, I have a better understanding of

[00:08:08:00]	[...] "military speak"

[00:08:12:00]	perse, but, you know, speaking in the civilian world

[00:08:16:00]	[...] just comes natural to you.

[00:08:20:00]	{Ok, thank you.}