Military Review English Edition November-December 2014 | Page 71

MILITARY ADVISING AFTER 9/11

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Linguists must mentor their advisors about relevant cultural details and help advisors learn some of the
language of polite protocol (e.g., important “meet and
greet” phrases) to advance the advising mission.
Advisors must ensure their linguists’ cultural
backgrounds (including linguists’ open-mindedness towards counterparts) and language skills are well suited
for the specific mission’s needs.
Advisors must influence linguists to serve as full
advisory team members, but not to assume a dominant
or lead role. Advisors need to strike the right balance
between not relegating linguists to the sidelines while
preventing linguists with strong personalities from
dominating.
Advisors’ effective leadership of linguists must
extend beyond the advising mission with counterparts
and include ensuring healthy interactions among linguists and other members of their U.S. units.
Advisors must diligently and consistently prepare in advance with linguists for advising sessions and
meetings with counterparts.
Advisors need to use sound techniques for
working with linguists while talking with counterparts:
advisors should avoid using acronyms, highly technical
jargon, and lengthy speeches without taking breaks.21
Conventional forces must adapt to the unconventional military advising mission. The advisory
role had been primarily handled by the Special Forces
since Vietnam.22 However, the post-9/11 conflicts in
Iraq and Afghanistan highlighted the substantial need
for advisors in such conflicts, causing conventional U.S.
military forces to undertake a larger role in the advising mission. One result was that many contemporary
mainstream advisors felt caught in a dilemma as they
conducted the unconventional advising mission while
operating within the sometimes overly rigid or cumbersome conventional military.
Some telling differences exist between the approach
of the smaller and more nimble U.S. Special Forces and
that of the larger and more lumbering conventional
military to the advising mission. Special Forces advisors tend to benefit from mission-essential flexibility,
adaptability, and the knowledge and lessons of an
organization accustomed to conducting the unconventional mission over several decades. In contrast,
advisors from the c onventional force often experience
the growing pains of serving in an organization with

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Army Sgt. David Floyd, Spartan 3 truck commander, discusses
ways to position troops with an Afghan National Army officer
13 April 2010 to ensure proper traffic flow along a busy road.
The Spartan 3 team served as combat advisers at more than 50
different checkpoints within five Kabul police districts throughout
the densely populated city.
(U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chris Fahey)

prerequisite to successfully building relationships with
counterparts. The following precepts support successful advisor-linguist relationships that advance the
military advising mission:
Advisors must carefully select and hire suitable linguists; linguists selected should either already
possess, or show a willingness to learn, sufficient
cross-cultural and language skills as well as demonstrate the ability to learn to operate in a military
context.
Advisors must build strong relationships with
linguists through informal and on-the-job time spent
together.

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MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2014

69