“The military mission is not as easily defined as it used to be,” said George A. Pruitt, president of Thomas Edison State College, which, along with Burlington County College, is providing the courses at McGuire. “Today, the military is actually engaged with the civilian population where they are stationed. They need philosophy, religion, history to have a greater understanding of where they are.”
Soon after the United States toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan and invaded Iraq, military leaders began acknowledging the need for troops to become better educated in foreign cultures. The first major effort came in 2005, when a Defense Department report recommended adding a regional language component to professional military education.
The Air Force decided to take the recommendation a step further, seeing a need for troops not only to speak foreign languages but to understand foreign cultures as well. Last year, the Air University in Montgomery, Ala., which provides professional military education to the Air Force, added a new Culture and Language Center to its campus.
“Language is useful, but we want people to build relations across cultural barriers,” said Dan Henk, the director of the center. “We asked ourselves, ‘Is it possible to give people the skills to go anywhere, quickly see patterns and be able to respond?’ The answer was yes.”
To build what Dr. Henk, an anthropologist, called “cross-cultural competency,” the center has been developing courses and programs intended to help acclimate soldiers to foreign cultures.
As word of the effort spread, the Edison and Burlington college presidents collaborated with Representative H. James Saxton of New Jersey and Col. Rick Martin, the base commander at the time, on the idea of offering cultural classes to the 5,000 airmen and women at McGuire.
“It started off with language — Farsi, conversational Arabic,” said Robert C. Messina Jr., Burlington’s president, speaking of his meetings with Colonel Martin. “Then he said, ‘Could you get someone to talk about the culture of the Middle East? How you don’t go up and hug someone, and no bikini wearing?’ So we did that.”
McGuire’s program was rolled out at the end of last year; other bases around the country are also offering similar classes. At McGuire, about 60 enlisted men and women and two officers are participating.
With classes in Arabic, Islam, comparative religions and East Asian history, among others, McGuire hopes to provide active-duty troops with tools to help them during battle but also beyond, said Linda Richardson, director of education and training at the base.
“It’s been eye-opening,” said Staff Sgt. Adam Crepeau, an aircraft maintenance instructor and a student in the Eastern philosophy course who is pursuing a degree in human resources. “The more knowledge I have about different cultures, the better.”
While learning the difference between Taoism and Confucianism, the subject of a recent evening’s lecture, may seem of little practical use in war, Sergeant Crepeau said he could have used some of what he was learning in the course, which is provided by Burlington, during his four-month tour in Iraq last year.
“We had no briefings except on a need-to-know basis,” Sergeant Crepeau said, referring to cultural briefings. “You might tune in to the radio and hear prayers and wonder, ‘What is that?’ You know they have prayers and customs, but you don’t understand them.”
The classes can count toward an associate’s or bachelor’s degree; students receive “wing recognition” — bars on their uniforms — as an added incentive. Officers can also earn a pay raise, as much as $12,000 more for foreign language proficiency
