Developing Mach-21 Airmen

A deep dive inside the Language Enabled Airmen Program is the focus of the latest episode of "The Air Force Starts Here," released Feb. 11, 2020. Senior Airman Francisco Melendez from the Air University public affairs team sat down with the director of the Air Force Language and Culture Center, Howard Ward, as well as Capt. Christopher Price, a LEAP scholar, to about the AFCLC’s flagship language program focused on cross-cultural communication. Ward details how the LEAP program spans an Airman’s entire career, including both building and maintaining a working proficiency in a foreign language that allows them to think globally and use their skills as a force multiplier. Ward also talks to who is eligible for the program and dispels the myth that LEAP is an interpreter program. Price details how he came to be in the LEAP program and his passion for it, as well as talks about his travels while in the program.