A 25-member team from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, is in the vicinity of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France, searching for three missing airmen, whose C-47A aircraft was presumably shot down by German anti-aircraft fire on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
The recovery mission would be very difficult without a member of the team who speaks French, as discussions with the landowner, contractors and vendors are required.
This task belongs to Air Force Tech. Sgt. Kim Nota, a native of Brandon, Manitoba. She said her parents are both originally from Quebec, so they spoke to her in French as a child.
Nota said Canadian French is a different dialect than what is spoken in France. “So, people know right away that I’m not from here,” she said, laughing.
But there’s enough similarity between the accents that communication is no problem, she said.
This isn’t the first time Nota encountered a different French dialect. In 2014, she deployed to Niger, which was once a French colony. It got some getting used to learning that dialect as well, she said.
Both of Nota’s parents were in the Royal Canadian Air Force. They live in Ottawa, Canada, and are Canadian citizens.
Nota first came to the U.S. in 2003. She enlisted in 2010 and later became a U.S. citizen.
Her actual Air Force job isn’t being an interpreter. She’s a communications technician.
This is her first recovery mission and she said being on the team is incredible.
“Being here is super interesting to me. Just being able to actually do something with my language is something I don’t really get a chance to do all the time,” she said.
“Doing something that’s so much bigger than myself — so much bigger than [the] small bubble that I occupy. What an awesome opportunity,” she said.
