EDITOR’S NOTE: To suggest a veteran for this series, which runs through Veterans Day, email metro editor Marly Reichert at mreichert@tribtoday.com.

CANFIELD — Ni Hua Ah?

That’s Mandarin Chinese for “How are you?”

The average American likely doesn’t know the English translation of that Chinese phrase, but Emil Saloom does — and for good reason.

“I was second in my class, and there were about 90 of us,” said the 88-year-old U.S. Army veteran, recalling the first days of his three-year stint as an intelligence agent in the armed services. He joined the service on a whim with a buddy in the fall of 1952 .

They were looking for direction, and it was in the midst of the Korean War.

“It seemed like the thing to do at the time,” he said, smiling.

The Farrell, Pa., native grew up in Brookfield and attended its school system through his high school graduation in 1951 before heading to Westminster College to study journalism. But, drawn to the military, he and his friend answered the dutiful call — a decision he said he never regretted.

It was fall of 1952 and also still was relatively early in America’s Cold War with the former Soviet Union. So the duo enlisted and Saloom went off to basic training at Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky.

After basic training, he was sent to Fort Devens in Massachusetts and was given an aptitude test that revealed his penchant for language and cryptography.

He opted for the former, even though the other specialty would have sent him to Boston, a city he was dying to visit.

After giving it much consideration, and with some serious pressure from his mom to switch to language school, that’s exactly what he did. Once his basic training was completed in total, he received orders to study Russian in California. So he headed out West, only to discover his assignment had been altered from studying Russian to learning Mandarin Chinese.

“It didn’t necessarily make sense to me, but you do what you’re told in the Army,” Saloom said, laughing.

And he did it extremely well, no doubt because his instructor was vigilant about drilling Mandarin into the class every day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (with a brief break for lunch daily) for exactly 12 months.

“The only day the teacher spoke English was on the first day to tell us we wouldn’t hear it again for a year,” he recalled.

Upon completing the course, he and five others were sent to the Army Security Agency and was later assigned to the National Security Agency, to begin intelligence work decoding messages.

At the apex of his career, Saloom could communicate in Mandarin Chinese as easily and fluently as he spoke his native English.

After two years with the ASA / NSA, he was offered a civilian job as a linguist but opted, instead, to come back to the hometown, family and friends he’d been missing for so long.

He took a job with a friend working at Haber’s Furniture store on East Federal Street in Youngstown’s downtown. It was 1965 and that move wound up being fortuitous for his career and personal life because in July 1966 he decided to follow his creative passions and open his own agency, Saloom Advertising.

It also was the same year he met and had drinks with the former Doris Mraovich at the suggestion of a mutual friend.

“She had a date with another guy that same night but broke it for me,” Saloom said.

Doris gently protested. “Well, that’s not exactly how it happened,” she said with a chuckle.

Regardless, it led to a 55-year marriage that has seen many happy decades of travel, hard work and one extremely successful business.

After many years of helping other companies brand and expand their businesses, Saloom retired in 1997.

He and Doris now enjoy quiet relaxing days at their home in Canfield, where he often recalls his days in the service. “I really enjoyed learning Chinese because it came so easy to me,” he said. “Even if I didn’t use it much after leaving the Army in September of 1965.”

But it certainly does come in handy when he and Doris get a hankering for their favorite take-out dinner.

“I can actually order in completely fluent Chinese,” he said, laughing.

Emil Saloom

AGE: 88

RESIDENCE: Canfield

SERVICE BRANCH: Army

OCCUPATION: Retired advertising agency owner

FAMILY: Wife, Doris Saloom