Bathrooms are latrines; guns are weapons; food is chow and taking a shower is conducting personal hygiene. For new soldiers entering basic combat training, learning Army-isms can be like learning an entirely new language.
For Spc. Jesus (Omar) Ramos, a signal support system specialist with the10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade, it was exactly like learning a new language. Having enlisted from his hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Ramos barely spoke any English when he arrived at Fort Jackson, South Carolina in November 2014 – and his drill sergeants weren’t necessarily accommodating.
“The only English I knew came from classes in school,” said Ramos, who was 28 when he enlisted – a decade removed from high school English lessons. “So basic was hard.”
Now, he says, English is easy – he no longer struggles to understand or communicate, but when he does, he says the leadership in his office is always ready to help.
“Spc. Ramos is very hardworking,” said Sgt. Adrian Garland, who directly supervises Ramos’ work in the brigade. “He’s very, very motivated and is always asking questions., which is rare,” he said.
Garland says he’s seen Ramos improve across the board since his arrival at Fort Drum.
“Life is definitely different up here,” Ramos said. “When I joined the Army, I changed everything. The way I was living, the type of environment – it’s all completely different.”
“But,” he said, “I love it.”
Ramos said that he joined the Army to give his family more opportunity. Though he had earned an associates degree in instrumentation, all of the jobs in his area required experience – which Ramos did not have.
“I looked for good jobs to bring money in, but nothing was working,” he said.
And when his now-wife Wendolyn became pregnant again only six months after his daughter was born, Ramos knew it was time for something different; he couldn’t afford to raise his children the way he wanted to with the jobs available to him in San Juan.
Even without financial considerations, Ramos said before his enlistment, he and his wife feared for their children’s safety in their own neighborhood, which he described as bad – “like the projects,” he said.
“When I was deciding to join the Army, there was a gang war going on – there were a lot of shootings, day and night,” said Ramos. “It was getting scary. I wanted to give them something better than that but with the jobs I was getting, I couldn’t.”
And so, after eight months of training, Ramos found himself in Fort Drum in June 2015, with his wife and two children arriving one month later.
“They love it here,” he said – and so does he. Ramos said he intends to serve a full 20 years in the Army, and, because he remains connected to his friends and family in Puerto Rico, says he’s in no rush to go back.
That doesn’t mean he’s dismissed his home culture, though. Ramos says he gets excited whenever he meets other Spanish-speaking service members, and tries his best to look out for them and help them make the same adjustments he did.
“Since I got here, the friendships I can make with other Hispanics is very strong,” he said. “I like it when I find somebody that speaks Spanish; I know that they’re probably having the same issue I had when I got to the Army. I want to make them feel comfortable.”
Now, he said, even friends from home have started reaching out.
“They ask me if I like it, if I think it would be good for them. They worry that they don’t speak English – but I tell them they’ll learn. I tell them they should do it,” he said.
For Ramos, joining the Army has meant a great deal of transition – from Spanish to English, from island life to the north country, from civilian to soldier. Despite the difficulties along the way, though, he said he wouldn’t change a thing.
“When I joined the Army, my expectation was that it was going to be hard,” he said. “I don’t feel that way anymore.”
| Date Taken: | 10.13.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 10.26.2016 09:44 |
| Story ID: | 212951 |
| Location: | FORT DRUM, NY, US |
| Hometown: | SAN JUAN, PR |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Hispanic Soldier finds bright future after overcoming language barrier, by SGT Liane Hatch, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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