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Another "New Afghan Eagle" leaves for the U.S.

  • Published
  • By Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Jared E. Walker
  • 438th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
KABUL, Afghanistan --  First Lieutenant Hamidullah Amin, a pilot candidate in the Afghan Air Force and student at the Afghan Air Force English immersion lab known as the "Thunder Lab" at Kabul, Afghanistan, flew from the Kabul International Airport to a partner nation in the Middle East to start pilot training Feb. 23.

Private First Class Sylvester White, an enlisted advisor at the Thunder Lab and member of the NATO Air Training Command - Afghanistan, explained that Lieutenant Amin's presence will be missed at the Thunder Lab.

"Amin was one of the first Afghan lieutenants at the Thunder Lab," said Private White. "He was the one who got the ball rolling in getting the Afghans to do formations. For the first few months, he was the one getting the other Afghans to muster on time. He also broke the ice between the U.S. Army non-commissioned officers and the Afghans Lieutenants. He will be severely missed."

Private White said when he first arrived the Afghan lieutenants had problems taking direction from the enlisted advisors but Lieutenant Amin was the one who changed that.

"In their own language, Dari, Lieutenant Amin explained that when they eventually went to training at Defense Language Institute in San Antonio, Texas, it will be non-commissioned officers, not officers, that will be training them," said Private White.

Lieutenant Amin was one of the first lieutenants to graduate from Thunder Lab and he is now one of the last of the original flight to leave. White explained that most of the Afghan lieutenants belong to the second group that arrived and he tutored them and helped them become accustomed to how thing worked there.

Now that Lieutenant Amin has left the Thunder Lab, he will head to DLI where will receive advance English training.

"In Lieutenant Amin's case, he already has the graduating English Comprehension Language score need for graduation from DLI. He will go to DLI to in processing and he has to pass two ECL tests to make sure he has retained the information he learned from the Thunder Lab. On day two, he will receive a refresher course and on day three, he will take an exam. If he passes the exam with an 80 or higher, he will take another course exactly one week later. If he passes that test, he will go directly to flight school," said Private White.

He said that it is common for Thunder Lab lieutenants to transition through DLI within a few months and go straight to flight school because of the advance English training they received from their NATC-A advisors.

"Lt. Col. John Howard, the officer-in-charge of the Thunder Lab, received a letter last month saying that the Thunder Lab has saved over 300 million dollars by advancing the AAF lieutenants straight to flight school because of their ECL scores," Private White said.