Buffalo News (New York)
February 1, 2005 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION

LANGUAGE OF PATRIOTISM COMES FROM THE HEART

By BEDROS PETE ODIAN

In the early 1940s, I was contributing my modest bit as a weatherman
in the Army Air Corps to the defeat of Adolf Hitler and Emperor
Hirohito. Midway through the war, the Army issued a call for officer
candidate school for personnel who knew foreign languages.

This was in anticipation of military government during occupation
when the war ended. Displaced people would be interrogated to assist
them in getting settled. Enemy personnel would be questioned during
investigations of war crimes.

Although I enjoyed meteorology immensely, I felt I could contribute
to postwar occupation activities.

I gained fluency in Armenian through my immigrant parents. Like many
immigrants, they spoke their native tongue at home. They never
attended school. Yet, they valued education. In the afternoons, after
attending public elementary school, I attended Armenian class at the
Armenian church. The priest was usually the teacher. Other times, a
lay person conducted the class.

I appeared before the officer candidate board, made up of a colonel
and other officers. The interview included questions about the
structure of the Army and current events.

Well into the interview, the colonel noted in my application that I
spoke, read and wrote Armenian. He asked me where I learned the
language. I explained that I learned it as a child, speaking with my
parents and attending Armenian classes. The colonel asked, “Your
parents speak Armenian at home? Don’t they know this is America?”

The question shocked me. I was not sure whether it was to test my
threshold of anger or to observe how I enunciated my answer. It was
an improper question.

I weighed my options. Should I give a “politically correct” answer to
gain favor, or give a truthful answer that would surely doom my
chances? I chose the latter.

I explained that my parents knew better than any of us in the room
that this is America. They fled from persecution and came to America
to seek a better life. My father, who by then was a widower, was
operating a one-man grocery store, coping with wartime shortages and
price-control regulations.

He had two sons, me and my brother, who was in the airborne infantry
in Europe. Yes, sir, I said, my late mother and my father knew this
is America. They were always thankful for their freedom.

A memo arrived a week later saying that I was not considered officer
material. But I do not regret my response. I sought to convey the
very essence of America and everything I learned about our country,
the land of liberty and opportunity, since my birth in the United
States in 1921.

Years later, the School of General Studies of Columbia University
added several language credits to my transcript for Armenian.
University officials didn’t seem to care how I learned to speak
Armenian. To be charitable, perhaps the colonel lost sight of the
objective of the language program.

Two of my friends growing up in the ’30s, Miltie Shapiro and Jimmy
Pappas, also were from immigrant families. Miltie attended Hebrew
school at the local synagogue. Jimmy attended Greek school at the
local Greek church.

I can see the colonel now: Don’t they know this is America?

BEDROS PETE ODIAN lives in Amherst
From: Baghdasarian