Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center can look back on a moment that fundamentally transformed its mission, resources and role in national security.
Just months before the attacks, newly appointed DLIFLC Commandant Col. Kevin Rice was confronting a series of seemingly unrelated challenges. The Institute faced mounting financial pressures, including soaring utility costs and an unfunded locality pay increase for faculty and staff.
“Every month I had to wrestle with TRADOC to remind them that I was going to run out of money three or four months before the end of the year,” Rice said speaking about his higher headquarters, the Training and Doctrine Command located at Ft. Eustis, Virginia.
At the same time, the Presidio of Monterey was embroiled in controversy after an Army directive that year ordered military installations nationwide to restrict public access, prompting concerns from local residents as they watched the building of a perimeter and gates around the Institute. Complaints about the inevitable closure of the Presidio, a thoroughfare for locals, poured into the Monterey County Herald newspaper.
Adding to Rice’s worries was the deteriorating condition of Stilwell Hall, a massive former Army building perched precariously on the coastline and threatening an environmental disaster if it collapsed into
Stilwell Hall
Monterey Bay.
“I used to stare at that thing (Stilwell Hall) and think ‘It’ll be just the worst thing for the U.S. Army and the military community in the Monterey area if we allowed that large building, that was full of asbestos and lead paint … to fall into the ocean, which was the National Marine Sanctuary of the Monterey Bay,’” explained Rice.
While these challenges consumed much of the command’s attention, the Institute’s faculty and students remained largely insulated from the budget uncertainty thanks to close cooperation between leadership and employee representatives. According to Rice, DLIFLC’s importance was often overlooked before 2001 despite its vital mission of preparing linguists for the nation’s defense.
“The problem was that DLI, prior to 9/11, was sort of backwater within the Army. People at DLI all knew how important foreign language training was…but it (DLI) had not been given really any attention,” said Rice.
Then Sept. 11, 2001, came.
Like communities across America, the Presidio of Monterey was immediately transformed. Concerns from local residents over gate closures vanished overnight as national attention shifted to security and the emerging global fight against terrorism.
Col. Kevin Rice speaking to faculty and staff circa 2001.
““The editor of the (Monterey County) Herald called me up and said “we still have more letters but people called and asked us not to publish them,” explained Rice, with a chuckle, adding that some residents wrote that they believed he had predicted the events of 9/11.
The attacks also revealed the critical importance of military linguists. Nearly overnight, demand surged for Arabic speakers and experts in languages that had previously received relatively little attention. As U.S. military operations expanded into Afghanistan and later Iraq, the need for linguists proficient in Arabic, Pashto, Dari, Farsi and Kurdish became urgent.
“Everybody in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force wanted Arabic linguists right away,” Rice recalled. “And they wanted Pashto, Dari, Farsi and Kurdish speakers, too.”
At the same time, Rice faced an immediate challenge. Heightened security requirements meant installation gates had to be manned around the clock. With no military police unit assigned to the Presidio and no funding to hire civilian guards, students were temporarily assigned security duties. Rice quickly found himself balancing force protection requirements against the Institute’s primary mission of language training.
The events of 9/11 ultimately led to a profound shift in how the Department of Defense viewed foreign language education and cultural expertise.
“Of course, after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, everybody in the Army, and other forces for that matter, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, wanted Arabic linguists right now, right away,” said Rice. “Oh yes, they said, ‘Can you give me some Pashto, Dari and Farsi speakers, and some Kurdish speakers too?’”
What followed was one of the most significant periods of growth in DLIFLC history. Funding increased exponentially, allowing the Institute to construct new buildings, modernize aging classrooms, expand academic programs, enhance technology and increase capacity for critical language instruction. Languages associated with Central Asia and the Middle East became central to the mission as the nation responded to new security challenges.
The transformation was dramatic. DLIFLC’s budget more than tripled in the years following 9/11, enabling investments that had been postponed for decades.
“So, we were able to transform…and begin to modernize the classrooms and do many of the things that had been neglected for years,” explained Rice.
Today, 25 years later, the legacy of 9/11 remains woven into the fabric of the Institute. The attacks underscored a lesson that remains as relevant now as it was in 2001: language capability and cultural understanding are strategic assets essential to national security.
For generations of military linguists who have served around the world since Sept. 11, DLIFLC has been at the center of that mission. What was once a relatively overlooked institution, became a critical component of America’s response to a changing global landscape.
The challenges facing the Institute today are different from those of 2001, but the lesson endures. In an increasingly complex world, the ability to understand foreign languages and cultures remain one of the nation’s most valuable advantages.
