RAF engineer brings government message to local Afghans
5 Sep 2011 01:34 PM
A Pashto-speaking RAF Engineering Officer has spent the last few months working as an interpreter for the Military Stabilisation Support Group (MSSG) in Helmand.
Flight Lieutenant Dave Collins is a communications electronics specialist and since joining the RAF several years ago has mostly been based in Cyprus, working with the Joint Service Signals Unit.
However, last year, the 28-year-old from Bolton decided he wanted to do something a bit different. Having always had an interest in languages, he applied to the Defence Operational Languages Support Unit to do an operational language course and shortly afterwards started a 15-month Pashto course at the Defence School of Languages in Beaconsfield.
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