By Natela Cutter
DLIFLC Public Affairs
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, headquartered in Monterey, California, opened a new language training facility at the Combined Arms Training Center, or CATC, in Vilseck, Germany on April 7. (Photo by Natela Cutter, DLIFLC Public Affairs)
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany – The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, headquartered in Monterey, California, opened a new language training facility at the Combined Arms Training Center, or CATC, in Vilseck, Germany on April 7.
The official name of the DLIFLC center is the Combined Language Arms Training Center. The addition of foreign language training at this site will augment the current 67 courses taught at CATC and will provide military and civilian linguists throughout the U.S. European and U.S. Africa Command the opportunity to receive foreign language training closer to their home duty stations.
“The leadership understands there is a need for growth in our language professionals. They also understand that in this region the best way to develop partnerships is through cultural and language understanding,” said Col. Keith M. Logeman, DLIFLC assistant commandant, referring to talks he conducted with USEUCOM and USAFRICOM leaders.
“This effort was a true definition of teamwork,” said Lt. Col. Jeffery Hollamon, the CATC director. “It took less than a year to put this entire project together. CATC coordinates and provides individual training and professional education for U.S. Army Europe Soldiers, Department of Army and host nation civilians, as well as multinational partners with readiness training before deployment.
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, headquartered in Monterey, California, opened a new language training facility at the Combined Arms Training Center, or CATC, in Vilseck, Germany on April 7. (Photo by Natela Cutter, DLIFLC Public Affairs)
Though several sites throughout Europe had been considered for the language training needs, CATC had ideal conditions for student attendance, including dormitories and dining facilities. One of the big advantages of the Vilseck location is that the entire facility is already dedicated to military training activities for civilians, Soldiers and multinational students.
With more than 17,000 individuals trained at Vilseck in FY15, the center is well known for its Command and Leader Development, Medical, Training and Management and Combat Skills courses.
“A lot of NATO countries do not have the facilities we do, especially in the medical field. We have, for example a dummy that has a pulse and reacts to hot and cold or the use of wrong procedures,” said Capt. Jack Salyer, the executive officer at CATC.
“The advantage for foreign language students attending DLI here will be that they will be able to have hands-on, almost immersive training whether it has to do with medical terminology or predeplpoyment training,” said Hollamon.
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, headquartered in Monterey, California, opened a new language training facility at the Combined Arms Training Center, or CATC, in Vilseck, Germany on April 7. (Photo by Natela Cutter, DLIFLC Public Affairs)
In the past, DLIFLC has been supporting the needs of the services by providing small unit-level training in Europe by sending instructor Mobile Training Teams on location for language instruction. Today, foreign language students will be able to learn and or maintain their skills in Russian, Arabic, French and other languages without returning to the United States.
