The reasons RCLF should be attractive to the RAF are many.
First, it specifically targets General Purpose Forces, which is
where the RAF is drawn from. Second, the delivery mechanism,
via distance education, is designed to allow the tailoring of curricula to individual ranks or groups of ranks, in a format todays
Soldiers are accustomed to interacting with, at a relatively low
cost. Third, RCLF is mandatory training for all Marines in pay
grades E5 through O5. As such, the program builds on concepts
and skills at each level and is designed to be relevant to a given
rank and level of responsibility. This training and education
model could be used to complement the RAF concept of aligning units to specific regions for extended periods of time. Finally, the program not only provides cultural and language familiarization specific to a particular region, it also exposes Marines
to general culture concepts that are useful when interacting
with, or planning operations in, any cultural environment. One
of the key benefits to this type of familiarization training is that
Marines attain an appreciation for the importance of cultural
differences, and can attempt to account for that when planning
or conducting operations, i.e. being familiar enough to know
what you don’t know. This makes many of the skills developed
through the training readily transferrable to other regions.
An Army institute similar to CAOCL (an Army Culture and
Operational Language Institute, perhaps), could be established
to support an Army specific Language and Culture program.
It could provide the Army with a center that not only manages
the curriculum of an RCLF-like program, but also fosters an
environment where the field of Cultural and Language familiarization and learning can be advanced. Once again, this
institute would not be designed to duplicate specialized training
conducted at centers like SOCOMs John F. Kennedy Special
Warfare Center and School, or the Defense Language Institute.
In fact, the level of training this institute develops would require
a specialization all its own, it needs to understand the training
audience and the objectives Culture and Language training
delivered to General Purpose Forces (GPF) is trying to achieve.
For example, simply pulling out elements of Foreign Area
Officer or Civil Affairs training and making the familiarization
curriculum an “FAO-lite” course would not take into account
the objectives of familiarization vice specialization and the fact
that Culture and Language training must fit into the larger
training and education program that makes up the professional
GPF Soldiers skill s