At some point in our lives, we all faced language barriers. And one Montana soldier is building a bridge of communication between Romanians and Americans through sports.
Travel abroad and the rules of soccer are the same: two teams of eleven players try to kick or head a ball into the opponents' goal. But, what about the traditional Romanian sport of oina?
"O. I. N. A. You actually toss the ball and hit it. And, there's about 10 - 11 players on the field, and they catch it, and you have to run from one field to the other. And, they try to throw it at you. It's really just an interesting game, combining all sports of dodge ball and baseball. It's fun!" explains 2nd Lieutenant William Burke.
Corvallis native William Burke is currently serving as a 2nd Lieutenant for the U.S. Army in Romania.
"It's on the eastern side of Romania near a city called Constanta," adds Burke.
The 26 year old is working as a Movement Control Officer. His team is responsible for moving cargo, equipment, and personnel to various locations.
"We actually have to work with civilian personnel and the Romanians that are here. We have to coordinate timings with them and synchronize our schedules with them. And, this allows us to build our relations with them to support the overall mission of building military to military, and military to civilian relationships here."
And, as you can see, his job goes beyond just shipping supplies. It's about building relationships between Europeans and Americans and communicating through universal sports, like soccer.
"We go to these really small villages. Some of them are in cow pastures, corn fields, or fields where the ground isn't exactly level or have a lot of grass on them. But, the local villagers come out to support their team and our team. And they can see us play and just have a good time with them."
But, that's not all. Burke adds, "and, we have the Germans come down and play "schlogball" with them, which is an opportunity to share our cultural sports with them, and just to open up and see how each other can get along and develop sportsmanship with one another. It has been an awesome opportunity to work out here."
And, it's an opportunity for this Montana soldier to re-connect to his small-town roots.
Burke graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2008. While at West Point, he studied abroad in China and trained with that country's military cadets. Now, he speaks fluent Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese.
