Organic Language Proficiency: A Revolutionary Opportunity | Small Wars Journal

Was a bit hesitant to look at yet another article on language.. but this one is worth the read. Its partly service flavored, but it rings across the armed forces. My long standing issue with language is that you invest time and effort to train soldiers in a language - and then HRC does not track it nor use it as a priority of assignment. In the USAR.. it usually shows only if your getting paid for a language in MOS slot that requires it..... so a leader really does not know what he has for all those in 0+ level that could be further trained.... if the funding was there. There were alot of options on the cheap to get those soldiers trained if you knew who they were.
The other aspect in having a HRC that needs a vast revamp - and that continues to process in peace time efforts 17 years into a war.. is Big Army has great ideas like the RAF - and then lets them wilt away and replaced by something else that is more generic and not regionally focused. If a force is to be regionally focused - language and or regional specialization must be part of individual training. You can not master all the languages of Indo-PACOM or AFRICOM or EUCOM.. but you can specialize in the region.. and take on a regional language mix.... you can even recruit for that mix in the USAR and ARNG..