Special Operations Forces Language and Culture Needs Assessment: Mission-Specific Use of Interpreters

Abstract

The ability to communicate is important to SOF mission success both inside and outside their area of responsibility (AOR). Although language training is provided to many SOF operators to develop organic language capability on SOF tactical elements, they often deploy before optimum proficiency can be fully achieved or deploy outside their assigned AOR to locations where their trained language is not used. To compensate for a lack of mission-relevant language proficiency, SOF operators often use interpreters. This report describes the current reality of interpreter dependence and the impact of this dependence on missions from the perspectives of SOF operators.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 08, 2010
Accession Number
ADA634216

Entities

People

  • Aaron Watson
  • Amanda Deane
  • Eric Surface
  • Jack Olin
  • Kathryn Nelson
  • Lauren M. Brandt
  • Nathaniel Phillips
  • Reanna Poncheri Harman
  • Stephen Ward

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Department Of Defense
  • Deployment
  • Employment
  • Information Operations
  • Language
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Personnel
  • Personnel Management
  • Psychological Operations
  • Situational Awareness
  • Special Forces
  • Special Operations Forces
  • Training
  • United States
  • United States Special Operations Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Military Training and Readiness Simulation
  • Systems Analysis and Design