[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 132 (Tuesday, December 5, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2080]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN HONOR OF ALFIE TEWFICK KHALIL

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 5, 2006

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of a good 
friend and great American who passed away tragically on November 18, 
2006. Alfie Tewfick Khalil was a native of Egypt who came to this 
country in the late 1960s. In 1979, Alfie joined the faculty of the 
Monterey-based Defense Language Institute (DLI) where he taught Arabic 
to U.S. military personnel. He soon stood out as a leader among the DLI 
faculty. In 1980, he became a shop steward with AFGE Local 1263, the 
union representing the DLI faculty. By 1987, he was elected president 
of Local 1263.
  In the post 9-11 world, foreign language is a national security tool. 
In 2005, General John Abizaid, Commander of U.S. Central Command, 
testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military 
Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs, that the ``ability to cross the 
cultural divide is not an Army issue. It is a national issue. We have 
to be able to deal with the people in the rest of the world as the 
globe shrinks in terms of communication and problem solving and 
sharing.'' DLI plays an indispensable role in moving this defense 
strategy forward. But DLI can't do it without its faculty. They are 
native speakers of their mother languages who, like Alfie, come from 
the distant places all over the globe to help our Nation better defend 
itself.
  Alfie understood this and made the advocacy for DLI faculty and staff 
his life's work. After my first election to Congress, I learned quickly 
that there were two people I needed to know at DLI: the commandant, a 
Colonel so and so who would retire or move on in a year or two, and 
Alfie, who would always be there. Alfie made his presence felt in so 
many ways.
  One of the best examples of this was his hard work on behalf of 
``locality pay''--the small salary boost for Federal workers based in 
particularly high cost areas. Alfie pointed out that Monterey County 
was, indeed, one of those areas, but that the Federal Government still 
considered it rural so DLI faculty were paid at much lower rates. Alfie 
and I worked together for more than 3 years to secure a decision by the 
Office of Personnel Management that Monterey County-based civil service 
workers deserved locality pay. This hard work on Alfie's part has 
helped DLI attract and retain the best language teachers in the world.
  Alfie was about more than pay at DLI, however. He was about 
professionalism. That became clear in the recent fight to keep DLI off 
the base closure list. Alfie was a never-ending resource to my office 
and the BRAC Commission. He provided information and statistics on the 
level of expertise and depth of training of the DLI faculty. With this 
information it was easy to make the case that DLI could not be 
recreated anywhere else--that it was dependent on and unique to the 
talent of the Monterey area. Alfie was a key player in keeping DLI open 
and in Monterey.
  Mr. Speaker, I know that I speak for the entire House in sharing our 
most sincere condolences to Alfie's family both here in the United 
States and in Egypt and to his extended family of students and 
colleagues throughout the DLI community.

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