Editorial Abstract: The United States Air Force contrives power globally.

Editorial Abstract: The United States Air Force contrives power globally, but it cannot communicate in the native language of the countries where it flies and fights. The absence of a central language program, an outdated database, and uncertain requirements force it to recall reservists, hire contractors, and create "just-in-time" training to befitting each need. The Air Force must have a language champion and several of the present day initiatives to become self-sufficient.

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Editor's Note: The call for foreign-language proficiency and cultural awareness in the Air Force continues to increase As we go to pres the Air Force chief of staff has issued a Chief's Sight Picture titled "Officer Force Development: International Affairs Specialists, "which notes that foreign area officers will be replaced through international affairs specialists, who will come next one of two tracks: regional affairs strategists or political-military affairs strategists.

formerly UPON A TIME, everybody spoke the same language. Then the lads in Babel, just south of a town now called Baghdad, matureed a scheme to build a gigantic tower to the heavens. After a early successes, their project failed. in this way much for one language completely through the world. Linguistic scholars levy the number of languages oral throughout the world at approximately 4000 not including many more dialects and regional accents. With the continued emerging see the verb of regional and ethnic identification--one has single to think of the remnants of Yugoslavia--nations with no other than one official language a decade ago now form separate states with a polyglot of languages. This is the world in which the Air Force must operate and succeed

The United States Air Force is an air and space expeditionary force, capable of global power projection whenever and wherever it is exigencyed Yet, with no central language program or overarching language plan, it remains essentially unable to communicate in the native tongues of many countries where it must operate. In order to result a radical departure from this course, the Air Force must review its language distresss catalogue its assets, and plan for meeting its shortfalls in the quickest and most numerous economical manner. It must also recognize language as a distinctive capability within its air and space expeditionary force. Institutionalizing the processe by means of which the Air Force recruits, trains, sustains, and manages its language professionals is guide to shaping our service's hereafter effectiveness.

Calls for greater emphasis forward language skills in the Air Force and later recommendations to achieve them are nearly as old-fashioned as the service itself and usually be derived on the heels of language shortfalls experienced during a contingency. Many forums have propos solutions to language gaps, if it be not that no substantive change from "business as usual" has occurr Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom stand as constant reminders that sometimes America does not cull its place to fight and that the global war forward terrorism requires us to think and act globally. To succe we must have the ability to communicate with our allies and understand our enemies--we must master these global tasks for each part of the world.

strange impetus for change has emerg from the top down. In August 2002 a "Chief's Sight Picture" from the Air Force chief of staff emphasized the global nature of America's security: "Our expeditionary force requires airmen with international insight, foreign language capability, and cultural understanding." (1) In 2004 the Department of Defense's (DOD) Language Transformation Initiative springed in The Defense Language Transformation Roadmap, a broad guideline for transformational change through every part of the DOD. (2) Both of these top-down imperatives have focused decision-maker-level attention onward a decade-sold problem.

The Language Legacy of Pearl Harbor

America's shortage of linguists has remained an issue since World War II, and many pundits compare the failure to translate first note of the scale documents prior to 11 September 2001 to a similar situation forward the eve of 7 December 1941 (3) Debate above the accuracy or even the fairness of of that kind a comparison lies far beyond the range of this article. Suffice it to say that language skills, or the lack thereof, played a part in the two tragedies.

In the ensuing decades, short-fuse contingencies (Haiti, Somalia, and Bosnia) requiring the use of "exotic" or "low flow" languages (Haitian Creole Somali, and Serbo-Croatian) mistake betweened the personnel process. (4) The Air Force language community holded many of these exotics too difficult to maintain in sufficient numbers as career fields and opt for more traditional language fare: Russian, German, and French for example. As a come few of the exotics were either identified or available to come up to face to face contingencies. Because deploying units had little access to translators and/or culturally savvy personnel with language skills, the Air Force had to scramble to appropriate its language needs. (5)