MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- The Air Force Culture and Language Center recently accomplished the charge of building interoperability by connecting with U.S. Air Force Major Command stakeholders, partners, and allies in Germany during a large-scale international mission briefing.
In Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr.’s modified Action Orders, he emphasizes the need to “collaborate with allies and partners, across Directorates, Secretariat Staff, and with MAJCOM stakeholders, to develop integrated solutions for the USAF.” During this roadshow, AFCLC connected with several partner organizations to strengthen partnerships and enhance their awareness of the culture and language capabilities available for USAF and DoD missions through the Language Enabled Airman Program.
AFCLC’s Language Division Operations Officer Capt. Krista Bible and Language Intensive Training Event Program Manager Keith McCabe spent several days in Germany connecting with various partner organizations, including U.S. Army Europe, USAFE-AFAFRICA, EUCOM, AFRICOM, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Military Personnel Exchange Program, and NATO AIRCOM. They also visited the largest LEAP chapter at Ramstein Air Base.
“These visits provided AFCLC program managers an avenue for building new LEAP utilization partnerships and strengthening enduring ones,” AFCLC Language Division Chief Christopher Chesser said. “We could not have dispatched better brand ambassadors than Capt. Bible and Mr. McCabe.”
Bible and McCabe spent a week in Germany hosting a rigorous schedule of mission briefs with various partners to bring more awareness of the capabilities and services AFCLC provides.
“The purpose of this roadshow was for us to give our mission brief to various partners and enlighten them on what AFCLC is and what we can do for them, whether that’s providing Pre-Assignment Acculturation Courses, providing field guides, bringing valuable culture education and resources through our Culture Guide app, or fulfilling their culture and language needs on missions through Training Partnership Requests,” Bible said. “We have worked with some of these partners in the past, but they were not fully aware of the total mission and the full array of services we provide. It was a way to reinforce the partnerships we already had, expand upon them, and build new partnerships.”
The team also highlighted the process AFCLC utilizes to integrate Gen. Brown’s initiatives throughout all training and education.
“We were able to inform partners of our intentional integration of Gen. Brown’s initiatives into all the teaching, training, and development we provide to our LEAP Scholars and the total force, such as highlighting China’s Belt and Road Initiative and emphasizing cyber capabilities related to integrated deterrence,” McCabe said.
In addition to partnership-building, the AFCLC team emphasized the importance of LEAP for total force and Department of Defense utilization for mission support.
“The AFCLC Roadshow in Germany was remarkable,” McCabe said. “I’ve worked with LITEs since 2013 and have communicated with thousands of LEAP Scholars behind the screen or telephone over the years to ensure their training was successfully met. Visualizing how important this program is to many DOD agencies and LEAP Scholars was humbling.”
The roadshow also allowed AFCLC to identify and brief more language-enabled service members who were ready to deploy their language, regional expertise, and culture skills to fulfill the USAF mission.
“During a mass brief at Ramstein AB set up by USAFE, we saw many eager Airmen and Guardians wanting to be a part of LEAP. It was breathtaking to see possible new LEAP Scholars – the next wave of ‘willing and able’,” McCabe said.