I've never heard of it. A few years ago, there was a survey put out regarding foreign language proficiency... I put down that the coast guard should "test out" the usefulness of the DLI for operations. I even volunteered to be a test guinea pig for the whole gig. I live in Monterey so it would be a no cost win win. I was informally told that the CG does just fine with the people who already have foreign language proficiency without having to pay for the training.
Side Note: the majority of the students are e-2/e-3 from all the other branches, and one of the worst parts of being stationed here is the constant complaining that the majority do about "having to go to school".... makes me sick. best language school in the world and these kids all have an attitude of entitlement and no concept of the opportunity that they are being afforded.... not to mention receiving AD Pay while attending school. Rant over.
At one point in time, I ran SAR out of then Group Monterey. We had the number for the Duty Sergeant desk up there at DLI. Anytime we had a language issue, it took only one phone call and at most 10-15 minutes to get a language expert for any language we needed. Did a fair amount of phone patches and some hard copy transcripts and translations. They actualy kept asking us to call MORE often as the instructors found it a great real world training event for the students.
As for sending students there, it is still batted around once in a while, but I wouldn't expect to see it happen. DLI produces a language capability that would likely far exceed our needs. A VAST majority of our language needs operationally is at or below the interpretor level. Only a very small amount of our needs are at the Linguist level, which is the most likely level of a DLI grad. It would just be overkill as far as the expense goes.
negative. There is typically not a need for it. They rely on members that have foreign language proficiency to serve as unofficial translators if the command allows it. I actually had a Chief that told me to only speak English to those that we did safety boarding check. Since we did patrol near an international border we did come across a few that spoke little to no English but it was against Chief's policy to speak to them in anything but English.
Like everything in the Coast Guard it all depends on your command.
