Why the Air Force’s best ‘secret weapon’ has nothing to do with airplanes
The little-known program may be one of America’s best tools for winning the next war.
BY DAVID ROZA | PUBLISHED FEB 16, 2023 11:56 AM EST
English is the international language of aviation, but it can be a useful asset to know the native language of whoever you are flying with. This imagined interaction shows the flight lead directing an "ops check," in Arabic to which the wingman (Pilot Two) responds "Two's 3.6," which indicates his or her remaining fuel in thousands of pounds. (Aaron Provost/Task & Purpose).
At the start of the classic World War II novel A Bell For Adano, the narrator argues that one of America’s greatest strengths is its “fund of men who speak the languages of the lands we must invade, who understand the ways and have listened to their parents sing the folk songs and have tasted the wine of the land on the palate of their memories.”
“[E]verywhere our Army goes in Europe,” the narrator continues, “a man can turn to the private beside him and say: ‘Hey Mac, what’s this furriner saying? How much does he want for that bunch of grapes?’ And Mac will be able to translate.”
About 80 years after the fictitious events of the novel, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Charlynne McGinnis found herself serving as the allegorical ‘Mac’ while teaching an airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance program to local special forces troops in her native country of the Philippines.
“The first day I said, ‘welcome to the class,’ I spoke with them in Tagalog and immediately, right after that introduction, students were like ‘oh here ma’am, here are the problems we are having right now with the program,’” McGinnis recalled. Knowing the language “just opens up a floodgate, like ‘now that I know you understand the culture and language, I’m going to tell you what’s really going on. I’m going to tell you the inside baseball.’”
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-language-enabled-airman-program/
