MI Corps Establishes New Reserve Component MOS 97L (OCT 1993)

Photo By Lori Stewart | 300th MI Bde (Linguist) shoulder sleeve insignia.  

UNITED STATES

09.29.2023

Story by Lori Stewart 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian

OCTOBER 1993
In October 1993, U.S. Army Personnel Command (PERSCOM) approved the establishment of MOS 97L Translator/Interpreter for the Reserve Component (RC). It was meant to provide a pool of highly skilled translators and interpreters in a wide variety of languages to support Army operations worldwide.

In 1988, the 300th MI Brigade (Linguist) was activated in the Army National Guard, carrying on the lineage of the 142d Intelligence Company first activated in 1960. By 1989, this unique unit, headquartered in Draper, Utah, was comprised of seven battalions in Utah, California, Florida, Washington, Louisiana, and Hawaii. It recruited skilled linguists “off the streets” and provided them additional training to transition them into the 97E Human Intelligence Collector, 97B Counterintelligence Agent, or 98G Voice Interceptor MOSs. These personnel would augment the Active Component’s pool of linguists during contingencies.

The new brigade immediately identified shortages in the numbers of available linguists, the languages in which they were skilled, and their proficiency in handling translation and interpretation duties. This latter deficiency was particularly troublesome as approximately 30 percent of the 300th’s planned positions would require translator/interpreter skills, which required a different type of training than that for the other MI MOSs requiring language skills.

In 1990, the brigade’s leadership approached the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence (OCMI) at the U.S. Army Intelligence Center (USAIC), at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, for help. OCMI, in cooperation with USAIC’s Reserve Forces Office, assisted the 300th in a plan to reestablish the Vietnam-era 04B translator/interpreter MOS. With the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command’s support, several working groups were held in 1991 to refine the concept of a linguist MOS that emphasized translation and interpretation skills first and other MI skills second.

In 1992, OCMI submitted a request to PERSCOM to establish what would become the 97L Translator/Interpreter MOS for the RC only. The new MOS would recruit soldiers with existing language skills (a 2/2 in reading and listening) and provide a career progression up to master sergeant or first sergeant. They would be assigned to separate Language Support Teams that would deploy to provide translation and interpretation support to Army exercises and contingencies worldwide, allowing AC linguists to focus on their primary MOS duties. PERSCOM approved the new MOS in October 1993.

While awaiting PERSCOM’s decision, USAIC developed two new training courses: a two-week transition course to sharpen the language skills of prior service linguists followed by a four-week advanced individual training (AIT) course to hone their translator/interpreter skills. Following the PERSCOM approval, the first transition courses kicked off in June 1994 for Spanish, Japanese, and German linguists. The immersion courses were managed by the 6th Reserve Forces Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca and taught by instructors from the Defense Language Institute. In subsequent years, transition courses were offered in more than fifteen languages. The first AIT course began on 2 October 1995 for Spanish speakers, with others planned for Korean, Japanese, Persian-Farsi, Arabic, and Chinese Mandarin throughout the early part of 1996. By 2000, more than six hundred 97Ls had been trained. By that time, while USAIC retained proponency, the courses transferred to DLI and work was underway on a 97L20 course.

Shortly after the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the Army revisited the 97L MOS. In early January, Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2, Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander stated his intent to convert all existing 97L units to 97E or 97B units. Proponents cited the 97L MOS’s many inadequacies: no doctrine, no NCO course, and no promotion potential beyond first sergeant. They also argued that, given the form of warfare being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 97L did not meet the Army’s needs for multi-capable linguist soldiers at the tactical level. Opponents claimed migrating specialized translation and interpretation skills into the 97E MOS would dilute them until they ceased to exist, much as they had when the 04B MOS had been eliminated after the Vietnam war.

The proponents prevailed, and the deputy chief of staff, G-1, approved the elimination of the 97L MOS on 16 November 2004. Effective 1 October 2007, the 97L MOS was phased out “without conversion.”

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• Date Taken: 09.29.2023
• Date Posted: 09.29.2023 17:34
• Story ID: 454740
• Location: US