Article

2023-12-28 -Land of the Free

Special Forces soldiers not maintaining language skills

[Business Insider] What makes special forces "special" isn't just combat skills or superhuman endurance. For units such as the US Army's Special Forces, it's the ability to train and advise foreign forces.

But this requires to ability to speak the local language, or at least to understand enough to know if the interpreter is lying. Yet US special operations forces lack required proficiency in foreign languages, according to a recent report by General Accountability Office, a government watchdog agency.

Between 2018 and 2022, "most Army and Marine Corps Special Operations Forces (SOF) units did not meet foreign language proficiency goals," the report said. In fact, "less than half of SOF personnel completed any foreign language training."

US Army Special Operations Command and Marine Special Operations Command told GAO investigators "that they do not routinely assess if foreign languages assigned to SOF are relevant to the partner forces and local population they communicate with on deployments."

Posted by Besoeker 2023-12-28 08:01|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ] Top

#1 I suspect it was partially op tempo. Also the command would have to manage giving the soldier exposure opportunities for the different languages. That would be hard to manage. Sgt Billy has gone overdue on Pashtun.

Posted by Super Hose 2023-12-28 08:31|| 2023-12-28 08:31|| Front Page Top

#2 More timely to hire local 'terps' you can leave behind.

Don't outsource your core competency, for everything else use contractors. More plausible deniability.

Posted by Skidmark 2023-12-28 08:39|| 2023-12-28 08:39|| Front Page Top

#3 Soldiers have always had high standards for harsh language skills.

Posted by badanov 2023-12-28 12:17|| 2023-12-28 12:17|| Front Page Top

#4 Bantu peoples' language studies, or the highly recommended body positive class?

Posted by swksvolFF 2023-12-28 12:28|| 2023-12-28 12:28|| Front Page Top

#5 Does it count if they're proficient with preferred pronoun use?

Posted by Raj 2023-12-28 13:58|| 2023-12-28 13:58|| Front Page Top

#6 The standards are on a scale, level 2, 3 etc... Deployment schedule and future requirements allow for them to slip down a level or two and then brush up on their skills as the geographic region get hotter. For example being proficient in Spanish might not be to important right now so they let it slip. The soldiers get paid a different amount for each skill so it benefits them to stay proficient.

Posted by 49 Pan 2023-12-28 14:02|| 2023-12-28 14:02|| Front Page Top

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