[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 31 (Thursday, March 3, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E409]
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

                        Thursday, March 3, 2011

  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. The Defense Language Institute is dedicating its newest classroom 
building for Middle Eastern languages in honor of Alfie Tawfick Khalil.
  Alfie, who was a native of Egypt, came to this country in the late 
1960s. In 1979, Alfie joined the faculty of the Monterey, CA 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 capacity is a national 
security tool. In 2005, General John Abizaid, former 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.'' As the world's largest foreign language school, 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 of 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 who would move on or retire after a two year stint, and Alfie, 
who would always be there representing the best interests of the 
faculty. 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 paid DLI faculty at much lower rates. Alfie and 
I worked together for more than three 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.
  However, Alfie was about more than just pay at DLI. He was about 
professionalism. That became clear in the most 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 of 
Representatives in sharing our sincere condolences to Alfie Khalil'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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