Strasburg man helps refugee family get settled

Matt Carpenter, director of pupil services at Strasburg Franklin School District, is serving his first year in the district and deals with students at risk and supporting military families.

Carpenter served in the U.S. Army’s infantry division from 2004-12 and attended basic training at Ft. Benning, Georgia. In 2006 he was deployed to Kosovo for a year.

In 2010 Carpenter served for six months as an adviser to the Afghan Army in Northern Afghanistan Baghlan Providence. Prior to being deployed, he trained at the Foreign Security Combat Advisory School at Ft. Polk, Louisiana. A team of 28 Americans and 28 Hungarian soldiers went to Afghanistan to train, advise, create an army and teach them to make good decisions during battle.

“I had language barriers and was challenged because there are several dialects in different tribes. Pashtu was the most predominate language among the people. There were interpreters assigned to the United States soldiers, and they spoke several dialects,” he said. “We were assigned to Camp Kelegai in Northern Afghanistan, which had about 500 soldiers on base. Relationships and earning their trust were the biggest challenges, and we had to always keep loaded weapons with us. We just had to keep prepared.”

In 2021 when the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban moved in, and the soldiers helped some interpreters escape, as their lives were in danger for helping the United States. Carpenter’s interpreter was Mohammad Essa Adeeb.

“He has a wife, two daughters, and what he did for the war effort and working with him for the time spent in Afghanistan was so appreciated. He has been trying to come to American on a Visa for the past 10 years,” Carpenter said. “I learned on Nov. 3 the family was issued a Visa and will arrive soon. The United States government will give them 90 days of support, and then the International Welcome Center, located at New Franklin, Ohio, will help them as much as possible beyond the 90 days. They will need to learn about driving, what jobs are available, what his wife and daughters need to learn about our culture, and things we just take for granted.”

Carpenter was asked to speak at the International Welcome Center, which is connected to Grace Brethren Church, about his special assignment in Afghanistan. He wanted to speak about his friend Adeeb, how he had made a good decision to help the soldiers but, in the end, lost everything.

“What mattered most? We were dropped in a terrible place, but Adeeb helped us, and I wanted to repay his kindness,” he said.

Carpenter said Pastor Cary Duckett, director of the International Welcome Center, had asked him to speak.

During that event over $68,000 was raised that night to help refugees.