The Army Vision is entitled "Relevant and Ready Land Power in Service to the Nation." This vision takes an already great Army and makes it greater by further defining the Army's purpose and establishing four pillars that are critical to our institution's continued success. Underpinning the vision is a preamble that states that the Nation has entrusted the Army with preserving its peace and freedom and defending its democracy. Simply put, the vision states that the Army is and must remain the preeminent land power on earth - the ultimate instrument of national resolve - that is both ready to meet, and relevant to, the dangerous and complex challenges of the 21st Century.
Dr. Francis J. Harvey
Secretary of the United States Army
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC)
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) is the world's largest foreign language institute. The mission of DLIFLC is to educate, train, evaluate, and sustain language abilities of Department of Defense and military linguists worldwide in order to support the Defense Foreign Language Program and war-fighters deployed in the field and at home.
- At any given time there are about 3, 500 students from the four branches of the military attending the DLIFLC. The Institute teaches 23 languages and several more dialects, all year around, five days a week, six hours a day. Basic Course language training can last from 26 to 63 weeks, depending on the difficulty of the language. There are over 1,100 civilian language instructors, most of whom are native speakers of the language they teach. Over 50% of the faculty hold either Master degrees or PhDs in Foreign Language Education or related fields.
- After 9/11 the Institute opened a third Arabic language school. A new department was created called the Emerging Languages Task Force, in response to the Global War on Terrorism. This department teaches mission critical languages such as Pashto and Dari, spoken in Afghanistan, and Uzbek and Kurdish, spoken in Central Asia and the Middle East.
- Those who wish to attend the DLIFLC need to be military members or civilians, sponsored by their DoD service component. Enlisted military must contact their commanding officer or recruiter and express an interest in changing their Military Occupational Specialty to Military Intelligence. Those planning to enlist need to express their interest in attending DLIFLC to the recruiter at the time of enlistment.
- To find out more about the DLIFLC please go to our website at http://www.monterey.army.mil or http://www.dliflc.edu .
Honor Deferred on The History Channel, Saturday, February 11 at 8pm ET/PT
African-Americans have fought bravely for America throughout our history. But sadly, until recently, they didn't receive deserved commendations. This is the story of seven men who deserved the Medal of Honor for their valor during WWII, but only recently received their medals--six had already died. More than a million African-Americans served within the army's segregated ranks. Despite their bravery and courage, not one of the 432 Medal of Honors awarded went to a black soldier. Was the army racist? Did African-Americans receive appropriate training?