U.S. Central Command | Faces of Transition: A little Pashto goes a long way

 By Cpl. Reece Lodder, Regimental Combat Team 5

U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Luke Forelle, the 3rd Platoon commander for India Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and a 28-year-old native of New York City, speaks with a local elder during a security patrol here, April 28, 2012. (Photo by Cpl. Reece Lodder)

SAFAR, Afghanistan (May 4, 2012) — The meeting was ordinary but the conversation unusual.

Seated on opposite sides of a stuffy room inside an Afghan elder’s dirt-walled compound, a pair of Marines and their interpreter relax among friends, sprawling out on decorative black pillows and conversing with their hosts.

U.S. Central Command | Faces of Transition: A little Pashto goes a long way