In Foreign Language Proficiency, Generals Should Lead By Example

In February 2005, the Defense Department set foreign language goals for junior officers in emerging strategic languages. This article looks at how their bosses, the generals, stack up to those goals.

The GAO published Report 07-224 in January 2007 for the House Armed Services Committee. One of the issues they looked at was the challenges of meeting DOD goals for foreign language proficiency set in 2005 for junior officers. The goal is to have 80% of all junior officers demonstrate a proficiency in foreign language by 2013. For comparison, I looked at how much of an example the Army's general officers are setting in making language proficiency a priority in their own lives. There are ten active-duty Army divisions and each is normally commanded by a two-star general. All of the current division commanders were promoted to their current rank shortly before or after the DOD report. The level of proficiency the DOD wants in junior officers after 2013 is known as Interagency Language Roundtable Level 1+, a very elementary level. Since the goal for junior officers is 80%, you'd think 8 of the 10 generals selected to command divisions would have the same rudimentary language skills. Not according to their biographies. Only two of the ten speak any other language at all. In fact, six other division commanders who have served in Iraq and continue to serve at higher levels also have no language skills outside of English. Generals in World Wars I and II commonly spoke at least one additional language, usually German or French and often both. MG Fox Conner, Pershing's G-3 and mentor to Eisenhower, Patton, and Marshall, spoke French so well he served in a French unit on an exchange program. In the book Once An Eagle, a go-to inspirational novel for Army officers, the hero learns more languages than one would think possible. I realize languages are harder to learn as one gets older, and general officers are incredibly busy individuals. Still, all of the them hold advanced degrees and presumably could find time to set an example if language skills are truly that important. These same skills were so commonplace in past wars that they weren't even questioned.