Rounding out the Square Peg: The Military Foreign Language Skills Imperative

by Christopher Mahoney

For the last six months they had trained hard- almost perfectly. They had mastered their patrol skills. Their actions on contact were solid. They had rehearsed their convoy SOPs over and over. They could perform a building take-down in their sleep. Every member of the platoon was at least a rifle sharpshooter. They boasted sixteen rifle experts and two school trained snipers. All were trained with the latest issue ACOG optics, NVGs, hand grenades, AT-4 rockets and some had even trained with the Carl Gustav bunker buster. Their Comm and GPS gear was state of the art. Their NCOs were all qualified with the M9 pistol and were solid leaders. They were confident. Their Corpsman was a mountain of a man who could easily carry any one of them if they went down. He had trained extensively in field first aid and wound stabilization. The platoon sergeant was a salty veteran of fighting in Somalia and Afghanistan as well as two previous rides to Iraq. Their commander was young but confident and aggressive. He had trained in combined arms and could accurately place indirect and air delivered fires. Though this was his first combat deployment, he knew the mission and was dedicated to getting his platoon home alive. Ethnically they were made up of 26 whites, 1 Asian, 6 Hispanics, and 9 blacks. They all had undergone some cultural training for the deployment. They knew it was rude to show the soles of their feet, to touch women, to mishandle the Koran for instance.

28 pages, Paperback

Published December 6, 2012

About the author

I started writing when I was seven, but it took me twenty years and about ten unfinished manuscripts to find a story I felt compelled to finish. My debut novel, The Incredible Origins of the Onyx Sun, has gone on to win a Writer's Digest award and was one of 50 remaining submissions from a field of 5,000 in the Semifinals of the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards.

The Incredible Origins of the Onyx Sun follows the adventures of Zack Goodspeed, a kid I once imagined myself to be, who stows away on a spaceship developed by his grandfather and fueled by an unlimited source of power called the Onyx Sun. Zack is thrust into an adventure that strands him on the Moon, introduces him to bold new friends, and pits him against an enemy trying to use the Onyx Sun to wipe out all life on Earth.

I am currently promoting this book, the first in a series, while working on the sequel, The Wicked Adversaries of the Onyx Sun.

My main interest for the last 34 years and an immense inspiration for my book, is technology. I currently work for Sony Playstation but have also held senior manager positions at Second Life, and the online division of Houghton Mifflin.

I share a birthday with Douglas Adams, who is ironically one of my largest influences.

I write from my imagination, which is all over the place but physically located in San Francisco, CA.