SALT LAKE CITY - Seven Soldiers with the 341st Military Intelligence Battalion (Linguist), 56th Theatre Information Operations Group, Washington National Guard, competed in the seventh annual Best Linguist Competition Feb. 6.
The Washington National Guard linguists were awarded the Command Linguistics Program of the Year in the premier language competition across the entire defense language enterprise — a crossroads between foreign language training and military intelligence disciplines.
More than 300 linguists from across the Department of Defense and civilians participated in the competition, hosted by the 300th Military Intelligence Brigade, Utah National Guard. Active-duty, Reserve and National Guard Soldiers represented the Army, with Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy members also competing.
Competitors represented over 100 organizations from across the national security enterprise. The scenario-driven competition covered all phases of the defense intelligence cycle, evaluating linguists’ ability to apply their language, cultural and technical expertise across seven languages.
“Competition is important,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Daniil Rubashka, a Russian linguist and native Russian speaker with the 341st Military Intelligence Battalion (Linguist). “It’s also an opportunity to showcase your skills and to improve on them so that we will always be the most lethal fighting force going forward.”
Rubashka, who also speaks Ukrainian and Mandarin Chinese, won the 300th Military Intelligence Battalion (Linguist) Professional of the Year award.
“I’m grateful for this award,” said Rubashka. “I’ve been in the military for five years, but I’ve been a linguist since I was probably 8 and had to help my parents with translation, so I feel like [I’ve been] a linguist since then.”
Other members competing on the 341st Military Intelligence Battalion (Linguist) team included Sgt. Jacob Farrows (French), Cadet Sueyeon Kim (Korean), Sgt. Shufei Yin (Mandarin Chinese), Staff Sgt. Ben Woyvodich (Modern Standard Arabic), and Sgt. Colton Abraham (Spanish). Sgt. Shahim Palman (Persian Farsi), Illinois National Guard, filled out the team of seven.
“I felt great about my team the moment I stepped into it,” said Capt. Evan Shelton, command language program manager for the Washington National Guard.
After check-in, teams received a “Road to War” brief before moving on to individual tasks. Evaluators graded them on voice intercept, document and site exploitation, operational analysis, and open-source collection missions, culminating in a commander’s brief.
During the voice intercept challenge, team members translated material they received live via headphones. They quickly translated and transcribed intricate foreign speech while prioritizing and transcribing the gathered intelligence.
The document exploitation involved competitors identifying materials they gathered and deciding what was important and what might be a red herring.
In the site exploitation, teams geared up with helmets, simulated weapons and night vision equipment to search vehicles for intelligence.
Open-source collection involved receiving and processing large quantities of intelligence. Teams used their knowledge of language and culture to identify disinformation, propaganda and outright fiction.
The teams then ended with a Commander’s Brief, summarizing everything they’d found throughout the competition.