ACCESSION NUMBER:00000

FILE ID:95082403.WWE

DATE:08/24/95

TITLE:24-08-95  U.S. SARGENT RACHEL KAVARSKY GOES FROM INTERROGATOR TO INTERPRETER



TEXT:

(Text: Press release 8/23)  (420)



(The following press release was issued by the Press Information

Center of the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana,

August 23.



Fort Polk, Louisiana -- Sgt. Rachel Kavarsky, 338th Military

Intelligence Company, Waterbury, Connecticut, trained to interrogate

soldiers from the Soviet Union. So, it may be a little ironic that she

was helping to teach military tactics to soldiers from a former Soviet

state now, the independent country of Kyrgyzstan.



Kavarsky was sent here to serve as an interpreter during the

NATO/Partnership for Peace exercise Cooperative Nugget 95, which

involves 17 countries, including several former Soviet bloc nations,

in joint peacekeeping and humanitarian aid exercises. Scheduled by

NATO's Allied Command Atlantic and hosted on behalf of the United

States by the commander-in-chief, U.S. Atlantic Command, it is the

sixth exercise of the Partnership for Peace and the first held in this

country.



In the exercise, Kavarsky worked with American Special Forces troops,

translating training lessons for a 38 member platoon of Russian

speaking Kyrgyzstani soldiers. A Russian and Eastern European Studies

graduate student at Yale University, Kavarsky said the training has

been beneficial both for her and for the foreign troops.



"It's been great. They are very eager to learn from us and constantly

ask questions. She said during a break in training centered around how

to deal with the press in the field. "My Russian has been improving a

lot because of this training."



Kavarsky said that the members of her unit, a part of the 94th Army

Reserve Support Command at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, were assigned

to CN95 because of the need for interpreters.



"This is excellent training because I'm getting real, practical

experience." she said.



The aim of CN95 is to foster the ability of participating nations'

militaries to work together in combined peacekeeping and humanitarian

relief operations. The soldiers practice tactics, techniques and

communications procedures at the platoon and company level. NATO's PFP

program assists the military forces of partner nations to emerge from

the Cold War as positive non-political, defense-oriented elements of

their societies.



Along with Kyrgyzstan, PFP nations participating include: Albania,

Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lativia, Lithuania,

Poland, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Participating NATO countries are Canada, the United Kingdom, and the

United States.



Cooperative Nugget 93 continues through August 26, 1995.

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