Master Sgt. Michael Simon, now an Academy Military Trainer for Cadet Squadron 16, began a year-long deployment in June 2011 at Shindand Air Base, Afghanistan as a Mi-17 crew chief air adviser, where he relied heavily on Afghan interpreters to stay alive and accomplish the mission of training Afghan airmen to run an independent and operationally capable Air Force. Now, three years later, Simon is sponsoring a former interpreter so he (the interpreter) and his family can live a better life in Colorado Springs.