International military student pre-departure briefing

DISAM Journal, Summer, 2002

Rempes, Richard C.

One of the routine, but more important duties of security assistance offices (SAOs) is to present a "pre-departure briefing" to all international military students (IMS) selected to attend schools in the United States. In some of the larger and busier SAOs, training officers often provide this briefing, or an equivalent packet of written information, to students many times a week. In order to reduce this load on SAO manpower and standardize the information being presented to all IMS, DISAM set out last year to produce a CD-ROM that would fulfill this requirement for all countries sending students to the U.S. under the security assistance program. That project is now complete and, as this issue of The DISAM Journal goes to press, copies of the CD-ROM are being distributed to SAOs and other members of the training community.

Background

The requirement for the pre-departure briefing comes from the Joint Security Assistance Training Regulation (JSAT), which states in paragraph 10-5,

SAOs will ensure that IMSs are thoroughly briefed before departing from their home country. When it is impossible to brief the IMS orally, the SAO will develop a written pre-departure briefing package for delivery to the IMS. Also, the IMS will be thoroughly briefed by the IMSO upon arrival at each training installation. The importance of these briefings cannot be overemphasized. Much embarrassment can be prevented if they are intelligently and diligently carried out for every IMS.

The minimum content of the briefing is spelled out in paragraph 10-54 of the JSAT, which itemizes no fewer than twenty-eight topics and numerous sub-topics. Over the years, this implementation has taken a variety of forms. Most SAOs have developed their own local version of an oral briefing and/or written package of information for the student. Recently, a few SAOs, notably Malaysia and Singapore, have produced their own briefings on CD-ROM. The scope and content of these briefings are largely at the discretion of the SAO, ranging from minimal coverage of the topics listed in paragraph 10-54, to elaborate presentations with extensive local country-specific supplementation. Unfortunately, there are still occasions when students depart for CONUS without any pre-departure briefing. This generally happens when selected students are stationed and depart to the U.S. from locations far from their servicing SAOs.

ODC Singapore's Pre-Departure Briefing CD

To remedy this problem, and to ensure that every IMS receives the same baseline pre-departure information, a standardized and easily distributable briefing needed to be developed.

A Generic Briefing

With the proliferation of multi-media capable personnal computers (PCs), and taking from the lead of security assistance training coordinators such as Sean O'Hara from ODC Singapore and Jaya Arasan from SAG Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), DSCA decided that a generic briefing could be produced on CD-ROM and made available to all SAOs and IMSOs dealing with international military students. In June 2002, Lieutenant General Tome Walters signed a memorandum for the training community (on the next) which directs SAOs to incorporate this CDROM into their standard pre-departure procedures. Every student bound for the U.S. comes from a unique personal background and brings a different impression of the United States to his training experience. As such, the briefing is devoid of any country-specific information, adheres strictly to the topics required in paragraph 10-54 of the JSAT, and is presented in sub-tided English.

Topics Are Organized Chronologically

The student starts with information useful to know long before departure, such as English language requirements, American cultural information, U.S. currency, medical coverage, driving, etc. Next, topics important closer to departure time are covered, such as baggage and airline tickets. The following section discusses issues relevant while in the U.S., such as student-instructor relationships and the DoD Informational Program (IP). The last section covers actions required upon return home, such as filing vouchers and student de-briefing. The CD also includes block-by-block descriptions of both the IMET and FMS version of the computer generated Invitational Travel Order (ITO), as well as the paper-based DD Form 2285.

An Interactive Presentation

Presented by Army Major Robert Holzhauer, a DISAM assistant professor, the briefing is essentially a menu-driven collection of QuickTime[R] movies filmed in locations relevant to the topic at hand (in a bank, a post office, a military clothing store, etc.), each with supporting graphics and sub-tided English narration.)

Many of the movies are supplemented with interactions or links to websites. Students can practice counting U.S. currency, look up current exchange rates, learn more about American culture and society on the web, or locate their destinations in the U.S. on an interactive map. There is a practice ECL test that students can take, and there are numerous side-bar articles and interactive charts, such as a U.S. rank and insignia matrix and lists of U.S. military terms, abbreviations and slang.