Maxwell Air Force Base -- U.S. Africa Command’s Exercise African Lion 21 is a joint, multi-national exercise in Morocco, Tunisia, and Senegal linked to U.S. European Command’s Exercise Defender 21 to counter malign influence in North Africa and increase interoperability.
Arabic and French Language Enabled Airman Program scholars Lt. Col. Qais Rabadi, Maj. Bryan Davis, Maj. Stephen Graff, Maj. Zachary Zeigler, Capt. Jennie Seibert, 1st Lt. Morgan Geneste, and 2nd Lt. Matthew Manner are currently providing language support to U.S. Army units at African Lion through the Air Force Culture and Training Center’s Training Partnership Request Program. Additionally, LEAP scholar Maj. Jason Jarecke is supporting the exercise as a Medical Planner, using his language capabilities daily and providing interpretation assistance as needed.
Before the exercise, 30 LEAP Scholars and Foreign Area Officers teamed up to form four document translation teams (with some members on multiple teams) to translate a total of more than 600 pages/slides across the teams. The translation team members were: Lt. Col. Andrew Smith, Lt. Col. Margaret Sullivan, Maj. Lauren Bogle, Maj. Emily Graze, Maj. Jason Jarecke, Maj. Sean Ritter, Maj. Kodjo Salokoffi, Capt. Claude Betene A. Dooko, Capt. Steven Brandt, Capt. Ciarra Douglas, Capt. Garrett Ellis, Capt. Casey Evans, Capt. Steven Kotecki, Capt. Abraham Mambo, Capt. Taylor Lopez Olijnyk, Capt. Victoria Smith, Capt. Michael Telcide, 1st Lt. Jose Colon Franco, 1st Lt. Morgan Geneste, 2nd Lt. Stephen Silvestri, Senior Master Sgt. Moise Francois, Master Sgt. Kossivi Akou, Master Sgt. Jeffrey Koellner, Master Sgt. Alain Mukendi, Master Sgt. Aziz Tetou, Tech Sgt. DieuDonne Batawila, Tech Sgt. Timothee Vandenberg, Staff Sgt. Sanvi Panou, Staff Sgt. Ndap Tah, and Staff Sgt. Michael Workman.