Johnny 5

We recently received a new interpreter (terp) who will be working closely with our unit the duration of our time here. His name is "Johnny" and he is unlike any terp I’ve met. One reason he is different from the others is obvious immediately upon seeing him. Johnny is 16 years old, though he doesn’t look a day over twelve. In a camp that is completely barren of children, Johnny turns heads where ever he goes.

This young man is always smiling and joking. At his age I was bagging groceries for extra cash.
But this kid speaks five languages and rides along on military patrols. He’s got a mouth on him like you wouldn’t believe though. You can definitely tell that he’s spent several years around soldiers from the profusion of four-letter-words constantly flowing from his mouth. He wants to hook me up with one of his cousins. He says she is beautiful and "has big boobies." I try and tell him that it might not be appropriate to talk about family that way, but he just laughs. A whole year with us and this kid is going to be truly warped.

Because of his age and size it’s difficult to know exactly how to treat Johnny. We’ve been told not to treat him as a kid, but it’s hard when half the children who beg you for candy every day are bigger than he is.

Despite his stature Johnny has taken on one hell of an adult job. It is not a rare thing for terps and other Iraqi contractors to be killed or have their families harmed because of their association with U.S. forces. He told me himself that he has known three interpreter friends who have been killed.

Johnny says that he’s saving all the money that he makes. He wants to go to college in the United States and wants to become an engineer. He doesn’t speak of this plan as some far off dream, but talks matter-of-factly, as if he has made up his mind and fully intends to follow through. I think that’s really great and I am confident he will do just as he says.

I know that Johnny should be considered a man for what he’s doing, but I don’t truly believe that is how we will treat him. I think we’ll see him more as a little brother. We’ve already become protective of him as if he were family.