AF Strategic Initiative

Good afternoon. I am 1sgt hekmat and today I’d like to briefly talk about how and why the Air Force Culture and Language center was established. Then, I will talk about some of their responsibilities in the development of the Airmen of today. Finally, I will show you how the Center is transforming the Air Force’s way of doing business in the constantly changing global environment. To start, let’s look at how the center was created. The Air Force Culture & Language Center was stood up at Maxwell AFB in 2006 in response to the Secretary of Defense’s direction for all services to establish cultural and regional familiarization and language training for all service members. A year later, Air Force Chief of Staff General Schwartz issued the cross-cultural competency framework with a plan for developing Airman who can communicate, build relations, negotiate and influence across borders in support of global expeditionary operations. In December 2007, the center was made responsible for culture and language training as well as education across the entire Air Force. Now that we see how the Language Center was first started, I’ll cover the mission that was given to them. According to the Air Force Culture and Language Center Charter, their mission is to define, coordinate and implement cultural, regional and foreign language education programs suitable for officer, enlisted and civilian employees either in-house or on-line. The center will conduct and