This is nothing new. The lack of those who can speak a second language. I've been in MI for almost 20 years and I've seen this before. This is a problem that starts at the recruiter level and goes up. Most don't know that even if you have not been to a language school, you can still take the proficiency tests and get rated. I even knew a guy who spoke Spanish and took the proficiency test and by passed the school. Sadly, the recuriters are under pressure to put people in. Take the DLAB takes time, and they have to have a score that will get them to DLI. But there are ways around that. The DLAB is not a test to see if you can speak a different language, but to see if you have what it takes to LEARN a language. So in short, read the Regs on this and see the loopholes.
Congratulations - Military.com managed to write that complete report on glaring vacancies for soldiers with language skills without mentioning the cause. "Don't ask - Don't tell". Under that policy they've discharged 12,000 military in the last 7 years with 800 of them having critical arabic language skills. An earlier report stated that we had recordings of phonecalls that would have tipped us off to the 9/11 plot. The calls were recorded but not transcribed because we didn't have enought translators. Who cares what they do in their bedrooms. We needed those skilled linguists the military kicked out.
