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“As Marines we must be able to navigate the human terrain as well as we navigate the physical terrain of the battlefield,” said Brigadier General Richard M. Lake, during a House Armed Services committee hearing on transforming the U.S. Military’s foreign language skills, cultural awareness, and regional expertise capabilities.
The military representatives described a series of new programs aimed towards making U.S. forces more effective in dealing with different cultures, including financial incentives for Reserve Officers Training Corps students willing to study new languages, actively recruiting those who already have skills in foreign languages, and the creation of a personnel database that includes active members, retirees and separatees.
The Department of Defense contends that these steps have been successful. In 2001 there were 1,400 students studying Arabic, Persian, and Chinese at the Defense Foreign Language Center. Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Personnel for the Air Force Joseph M. McDade, Jr. says that over the past seven years those numbers have doubled. There has been a similar increase in Foreign Area Officers (FAO).
“In 2001 there were 1000 army FAOs, and 149 Marine FAOs. In 2008 those numbers were 1,600 in the Army, Marines, and Air Force,’ said McDade”.