Army Officers Bring Their Pasts to Bear on Present Conflicts

U.S. Army First Lt. Samir Patel recalls a time when he was trying to talk to an Iraqi village mukhtar — similar to a mayor— about recent attacks in the area.

It wasn't working. Then Patel remembered what they had in common, and drew on it to bridge the gap. 

"It occurred to me that these people may live along similar cultural lines such as having a strong extended family," Patel said.  "So I switched my lines of questioning and asked about family members in the crowd and I would relate in kind with an anecdote about people in my family such as my father or cousins."

After that, Patel and his best friend Rajiv Srinivasan — both first lieutenant platoon leaders in the U.S. Army — often found themselves tapping into their cultural ties to India in understanding the Iraqi and Afghan people. They believe it ultimately helped them do their jobs better and led to better security for the village.

Their Indian backgrounds have many similarities to the cultures of the Middle Eastern countries, and that affinity helped them excel in their jobs as first lieutenant platoon leaders.

"I sort of had an idea about how they thought about things," Patel said. "I knew that a relationship had to be established first and that trust would eventually be earned by both understanding where we come from. Once that bond was in place, information would flow a lot freer and quicker."

Patel built stronger relationships with both the Arabs and Kurds in Iraq. The Khabar, a monthly magazine for the Indian community, published an article he wrote about  how his ethnicity helped him connect with the local people.

"We could understand some of the greater issues at hand and how their environment affected their priorities," Patel said.

Indian immigration to the U.S. has been widespread for decades. Far less common, however, is Indian men enlisting in the Army. Less than 5 percent of commissioned officers are foreign, not including Hispanics or Asian, according to the Department of the Army ethnic demographics. 

Indians are one of the smallest commissioned officer minority groups in the Army. More than 75 percent of all commissioned officers are white. Of the nearly 400,000 enlisted servicemen in the Army, less than 3 percent are non-Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic or Asian. 

Srinivasan speaks fluent Hindi and could communicate with the Afghanistan Army. They speak Urdu, which is a slightly different dialect. Most United States military soldiers struggle understanding Middle-Eastern customs, but Srinivasan served as a communication and cultural link between his platoon and the Afghanistan people.

"I carved a unique role in my unit with my ability to relate to a local population," Srinivasan said.  "My peers didn't have those ethnic relations."

Throughout his experiences in Afghanistan, Srinivasan kept a blog that describes what was happening on the ground.

Their families immigrated to the U.S. from India. Patel said there were few jobs in Gujarat, an India state that borders Pakistan. His parents individually came to the U.S. in the 1970s. Patel's father graduated from Tennessee Tech University, and then he later met and married Patel's mother and got a job with IBM after they got married. The job placed the family in Kentucky.

Srinivasan was born in Chennai, a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located in the Southeastern part of the country. His father was offered a computer software job for General Electric before the family arrived in Roanoke, VA.

Both graduated from West Point in 2008 and requested assignment to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Lakewood because it was deploying at a high rate. Instead of pursuing the traditional professional careers their families expected of them,  the 24-year-old young men joined the Army and became best friends.

Patel and Srinivasan had very different high school experiences. Patel fit right into an ethnically diverse school in Tucker, Ga. Srinivasan was born in India and said he liked growing up in his community, but he dealt with being part of a small minority group.

It took a couple years for Srinivasan to warm up in high school, mainly because of the cultural differences that came with being from India, his family's Hindu religion and a being a vegetarian. He stood on the periphery of most social circles his freshman and sophomore years, albeit he was an intelligent student who played the violin and became a member of the student government.

"My identity was split between family and social life," Srinivasan said. "I wasn't the guy who brought his friends home."

Both of their families carried high expectations for academics. They weren't enrolled in private schools, but Patel said you didn't want to come home with a B grade or less. Patel was the captain of his tennis team and also ran cross country.

They went through a one-year application process that included earning a formal nomination to attend West Point from the United States government. Patel's family made him write an essay explaining why he wanted to enroll at West Point. His aunt even tried to bribe his sister with a new car, hoping the used vehicle would convince her not to go into the Army.

"I yearned for something different," Patel said. "The academy really grew on me. I knew it was for me."

Srinivasan received acceptance letters into a number of prestigious schools like Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale and others. But after visiting different Ivy League schools, Srinivasan said he didn't feel a real purpose at any of them.

After graduating from their respective high schools, they arrived in West Point in less than a month. They met at a foreign language seminar during the second semester of their freshmen year.

"I saw this brown kid," Patel said about Srinivasan. "That was enough."

Not long after meeting at West Point, the two joined forces and competed as a two-person debate team in the Model Arab League National Conference. As sophomores, they won the overall national championship, upsetting junior and senior debate front-runners. They flew to Cairo, Egypt and competed on the world stage.

"It (competing on the debate team) opened up our eyes to a lot of things," Patel said.

Srinivasan and Patel were one of just a few Indian cadets. Patel struggled to conform to the rigidness of the military program.  Soon they were looking to one another for strength and support.

"Was there a need to develop a friendship like that?" Patel asked himself. "Yes."

They eventually got separate assignments. Patel went to Iraq as part of the 3rd Brigade. Srinivasan was sent to Afghanistan as part of the 5th Brigade. They both saw heavy combat during a 12-month tour.

"It was scary," Srinivasan said. "We had a lot of run-ins with the enemy. We held our breaths many times."

Today, their lives are taking another new turn. Srinivasan has accepted a job and will leave this summer to become as an admissions officer at West Point. Patel is waiting for a new assignment, perhaps in Iraq again. 

"It's more of a calculated risk," Patel said about going back and risking his life. "I still want to be there and contribute."

Until they take up their new posts, the two men enjoy the view of Mount Rainier from their downtown Tacoma apartments, two floors apart. Their friendship will always remain tight, wherever they are. 

"Friendships like these never go away," Srinivasan said. "They transcend distances."