The Army’s Regionally Aligned Force (RAF) concept is a way
to align Army General Purpose Forces to better support Geographic Combatant Commands (GCCs) in theater engagement, crisis response, and major operations. Regionally Aligned
Forces, through persistent engagement, provide a GCC with
units that have developed situational understanding and context
of a given region, have built relationships and developed interoperability with allied partners, and have established assured
access to ports of entry and support bases. RAF units, conceptually, are augmented with cultural and language training in order
to make them more effective within the region they will habitually operate. This article will focus on improving cultural and
language training of Regionally Aligned Forces.
As the Army’s RAF concept matures, soldiers assigned to
particular regions need a structured program that exposes them
to cultural and linguistic aspects of their operational area. The
objectives of this training is not to mirror the unique skills of
a Foreign Area Officer (FAO), but provides soldiers with the
tools to be better attuned to their operational environment.
This training should be developed and supported by an institution that can facilitate both distance and face-to-face educational interactions. The training institute should maintain readily
available cultural and linguistic familiarization material for any
region in which General Purpose Force (GPF) forces may be
deployed in a crisis situation. The Marine Corps University’s
Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning (CAOCL)
and CAOCL’s Regional, Culture and Language Familiarization (RCLF) program provide excellent training and education
methodologies, as well as the Army’s TRADOC Culture Center and the Defense language Institute, which has a multitude of
basic language familiarization material.
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The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team (2nd ABCT), after
being assigned as U.S. Africa Commands RAF, became the first
Army brigade to attempt structured regional specific culture
and language awareness training. The 2nd ABCT’s culture and
language awareness training manifested itself in what is known
as “Dagger University”. While Dagger University proved useful
in preparing teams to execute security cooperation missions
with African partner nations, it could be improved. Dagger
University, named after the brigade’s nom de guerre “Dagger Brigade”, relied on organic expertise from native African
soldiers, now serving in the U.S. Army, as well as voluntary
contributions from Kansas State University’s African Studies
Department. There are several potential drawbacks to this
approach. First, the curriculum relied on pro bono work from
civilian academics. There is no guarantee that such coincidental
and beneficial partnering will occur with brigades stationed in
other parts of the country, or aligned with other regions of the
world. Second, the program heavily leveraged resident expertise.
While organic regional experts may have a wealth of knowledge,
they are not necessarily best equipped to translate their personal
experiences into effective periods of instruction in an academic
or training environment. Once again, this opportune availability of regional experts will not necessarily be true in other RAF
units. Third, the program focuses on the brigade construct,
which is not necessarily applicable to staffs functioning above
the brigade level. Dagger University is not agile enough to support enabling commands, such as logistics, engineering, or medical brigades, whose responsibility may be spread across multiple
regions. Finally, the program is not formalized within an academic or training institution. As a result, the aspects of Dagger