Synopsis
In Book Two, GRID – The Crossing, company founder and author, Michael McFerrin, provides a chronological narrative of his continuing experiences in the military where his interpreting capability comes into play. Coordinating multinational police service for military personnel and civilians in Danang, he becomes aware of the extraordinary difficulty and danger that police officers and other emergency service people face to adequately perform their jobs. He sees this worsened by graft and corruption. The experience provides him with valuable insights for future goals to help police and other emergency service responders provide their vital services safely and quickly. There are four independent books that together comprise the series, The Story of Communication And Language Line, the first over-the-phone interpretation service. In 1982, by applying technological advancements and the reduction of communication costs to the large diverse language skills of Monterey, California, the company was able to economically deliver language interpretation service in over 140 languages, in any subject, at any time, and to any place. This innovative business quickly became a vital service provider to the young and growing 911 system, as well as to the responders dispatched to save lives and property, and was followed with rapid expansion to other areas of society.
About the Author
Michael McFerrin was raised in a small mining town in the Arizona desert nearly 50 miles from Tucson. In 1967 the war in Vietnam was in full swing. Young men from all regions of the United States were being wounded or killed. Michael’s town was not exempt. Shortly after one of his childhood friends became the first casualty he joined the Marine Corps at the age of seventeen. He served three years; two of which were in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970. The variety of responsibilities there gave him a multi-faceted perspective of the Vietnam War. Michael graduated in Vietnamese from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, while in the military, and in 1981 assisted Vietnamese refugees in their plight to get relatives safely out of Vietnam and into the United States. To aid in this endeavor he attended the Defense Language Institute a second time and graduated in another Vietnamese dialect. Michael’s experiences in Vietnam and his humanitarian nature led him to form Communication And Language Line in 1982, the first communications center providing telephone interpretation services to both the public and private sectors. A multi-billion dollar industry grew from this innovation. He resides in Minnesota, has three children, and loves animals.
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