2RHPZ
06-04-2005, 09:16 AM
Air Force Foreign Language Posture for Global Engagement
Col John L. Conway III, USAF, Retired, (BA, MA, University of Alabama), is a military defense analyst at the Airpower Research Institute, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. An intelligence officer with major assignments at Headquarters Air Intelligence Agency, North American Aerospace Defense Command, and the National Security Agency, he served as senior intelligence officer at Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), Robins AFB, Georgia, and in several wing and squadron intelligence assignments, including a combat tour in Vietnam with the II Direct Air Support Center in Pleiku Province. For his last active duty assignment, he served as chief of the Counterdrug Support Division, Headquarters AFRC. Colonel Conway has also held positions as a systems engineering and technical assistance contractor to the U-2 Directorate at Robins AFB and as an advisor to the Gordon Regional Security Operations Center, Fort Gordon, Georgia.
Once upon a time, everybody spoke the same language. Then the boys in Babel, just south of a town now called Baghdad, concocted a scheme to build a huge tower to the heavens. After some early successes, their project failed. So much for one language throughout the world. Linguistic scholars put the number of languages spoken throughout the world at approximately 4,000, not including many more dialects and regional accents. With the continued emergence of regional and ethnic identification—one has only to think of the remnants of Yugoslavia—nations with only 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 needed. 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 effect a radical departure from this course, the Air Force must review its language needs, catalogue its assets, and plan for meeting its shortfalls in the quickest and most economical manner. It must also recognize language as a distinctive capability within its air and space expeditionary force. Institutionalizing the processes by which the Air Force recruits, trains, sustains, and manages its language professionals is key to shaping our service’s future effectiveness.
Article (http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj05/sum05/conway.html)
Col John L. Conway III, USAF, Retired, (BA, MA, University of Alabama), is a military defense analyst at the Airpower Research Institute, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. An intelligence officer with major assignments at Headquarters Air Intelligence Agency, North American Aerospace Defense Command, and the National Security Agency, he served as senior intelligence officer at Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), Robins AFB, Georgia, and in several wing and squadron intelligence assignments, including a combat tour in Vietnam with the II Direct Air Support Center in Pleiku Province. For his last active duty assignment, he served as chief of the Counterdrug Support Division, Headquarters AFRC. Colonel Conway has also held positions as a systems engineering and technical assistance contractor to the U-2 Directorate at Robins AFB and as an advisor to the Gordon Regional Security Operations Center, Fort Gordon, Georgia.
Once upon a time, everybody spoke the same language. Then the boys in Babel, just south of a town now called Baghdad, concocted a scheme to build a huge tower to the heavens. After some early successes, their project failed. So much for one language throughout the world. Linguistic scholars put the number of languages spoken throughout the world at approximately 4,000, not including many more dialects and regional accents. With the continued emergence of regional and ethnic identification—one has only to think of the remnants of Yugoslavia—nations with only 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 needed. 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 effect a radical departure from this course, the Air Force must review its language needs, catalogue its assets, and plan for meeting its shortfalls in the quickest and most economical manner. It must also recognize language as a distinctive capability within its air and space expeditionary force. Institutionalizing the processes by which the Air Force recruits, trains, sustains, and manages its language professionals is key to shaping our service’s future effectiveness.
Article (http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj05/sum05/conway.html)