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Building relationships through shared experiences

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Michael Matkin
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  In life, it is generally held that for relationships to be successful they must be constantly maintained through communication, mutual respect, trust, compromise and hard work. The relationship with the base's host nation is no different and the servicemembers at the Host Nation Coordination Cell are doing all these things to ensure a positive professional relationship with the host nation continues.

"It's all about relationships. The host nation's culture, as well as Arab culture in general, is based upon personal relationships, which is different than military culture where you can get things done simply by duty title or rank," said Col. James Wesslund, HNCC director, deployed from Scott Air Force Base, Ill. "To get anything done here, a personal relationship must first be established."

It is not just the HNCC, however, that maintains this rapport. "The servicemembers can also have a vast impact, good or bad, by the way they interact with members of the host nation," Colonel Wesslund said.

The close connection between HNCC and the host nation does not come preassembled; it takes time and effort.

HNCC members build and maintain these friendships by just sitting down with members of the host nation. At first, their meetings are not necessarily accomplishing mission-related items, but are establishing personal connections which allow the mission-related agenda to get accomplished.

"We are drinking a lot of tea, talking about family and home life," Colonel Wesslund said. "It is through these shared experiences that we have formed a very good relationship with them."

"It helps when we share meals and talk about our children; their faces really light up when we talk about our families because they are a very family-oriented society," said Tech. Sgt. Nathan Burger, HNCC customs supervisor, deployed from Altus AFB, Okla. "There are cultural differences between our countries, but open communication can bridge that gap."

To help open the lines of communi-cation between the base populace and host nation members, Colonel Wesslund provided this advice: "Don't be un-approachable. They are a very friendly people and the majority speak English. They are just as interested in us as we are of them and just because our cultures are different, it doesn't mean we can't communicate effectively with each other."

Just as personal relationships can withstand difficult times through a foun-dation of trust and common experiences, host nation relationships are no different.

Establishing a dialog between the two cultures builds respect and friendships, which can pay big dividends in the long run. It allows the HNCC to better handle the sensitive issues that may arise, Sergeant Burger said.

"We need to be good tenants. It is their country, their base and their rules," Colonel Wesslund said. "We have a host nation coordination team, which is the entire base populace; everybody on base plays a role in how effectively we work with the host nation."