I am thinking about doing this. I have great language skills right now and I am [u]almost[/u] fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
What can I expect while I am there? Any free time at all?
If I complete the DLI school, could I still have a chance to see some trigger time if a war or conflict comes?

I understand its in CA, if I were to do it could I bring my evil guns while I am at DLI?

I know many Soldiers and Marines who've graduated DLI, although I have never attended training there.  

An interrogator once told me: "optimists study Russian, pessimists study Chinese" alluding to a war with China would suck, and a war with Russia was unlikely.  He was an accomplished Vietnamese and Russian linguist and did historically noteworthy work in both the hot&cold war periods.  Anyway, the school is in Monterey.  What's not to like?  Keep your hardware elsewhere, IMO.  I think there are exemptions now for military, but unless you store them off-base, it may be a significant problem.  I would research this thoroughly.  

You are unlikely to see trigger time, but may be close to the action and you WILL spend a lot of time away from home and family, most likely in SE Asia.


Jim

DLI is in Monterey, CA, about 100 mi south of San Francisco and on the ocean. It's a beautiful spot, and the campus looks out over the bay. It's a fairly small and sleepy town. There are some bars down from the Presido that are remarkably upscale for being next to a military base. Carmel/Pacific Grove/Pebble Beach are right next to Monterey; they're all upscale resort areas.

My guess is that you're out of luck as far as evil rifles go. I don't think there are exceptions for private weapons owned by the military. There is a nice county-run range a couple miles outside of town.

Thanks for the info fellas. Something the recruiter's cant tell you all can be found here!

I also just learned that they do not let officers go to DLI for some stupid reasons. I was thinking about going into the army after I finish up with college and after basic go to officers school and then DLI but it looks like that isn't permitted.

Does the Army give you anything special if you have just an AA degree? Wouldn't your rank be "Specialist" or something like that?

Im a grad of the Portugese Basic Course.  Attended there from May to Dec of 99.  For me the course was easy, but I already spoke french and spanish, DLI was a reup option for me.  If you attend because you have an MI MOS, you will attend prior to your AIT, thus no car, no guns, curfew, will be marched to class by Drill Sgts ect.  If you attend as a reservist CA/PSYOP type person, and do not have at least 180 days of AD time under your belt, you will also fall under the non prior service folks and be dealing with the DI's.  For folks who have more than 180 days, this is a Big Boy School.  PT on your own, no mandatory study time, you can live off post if you wish, but the cost of living is very high.  Better to put your gear in storage and try and get a room in the barracks.  You will be expected to spend some non class days teaching CTT and other army required classes.  There is no range on DLI, and weapons qual is waved for the time you are in the course.  

As far as officers not attending, that is not totally correct.  MI 2d LT's dont attend language training.  They like most other officers are managers.  They are not doing radio intercepts or interrogating prisoners, NCOs do that.  The officers who do attend are Senior Captains and Majors who are scheduled to work overseas in Embassy's and Military Groups.  

If you are seriously considering military service it is clear that you need to do some more research and DO NOT TALK TO ANY MORE RECRUITERS.  The best source of information is from active duty military personnel first and then people who have left the service within the last 4 years.  A good substitute is info from members of forums like this.

The current climate in the military is that RETENTION is high therefore recruitment needs are lower.

As a general rule, commissioned officers have a 4 yr college degree.  Any level of education less than that and you are enlisting on a 8yr contract divided up into active/reserve time.

Tell people on this forum what you are interested and they can probably steer you to a military job and service that may fit your desires.  

Good luck.

OK, my time goes back almost 20 years (if I had stayed in, I would retire in October.  Damn fool me...)  I attended DLI immediately after AIT (Interrogator school, Ft Huachuca, AZ)  I took the 47 week Japanese course.  This actually lasted 1 year with the Christmas break, etc.  Graduated 1 day shy of 1 year from AIT grad.  When I was there, with the exception of morning PT and occaisional CQ was actually a lot like college.  After PT and breakfast, we went to class all day.  Then back to the barracks for some home work and memorizing monologues.  I was an E2, made E3 while there.  I had an off post evening job (evening manager at a tinder box store, loved it)  Weekends were mine to do whatever I wanted.  Several times I resided off post for a week at a time house sitting for instructors that went on vacation.  All of these "Priveleges" were, of course, dependent on maintaining high grades.  Although we did not have any officers in my class (1 Marine Gunny, 1 SP5, 1 college boy E-4 and 3 of us that started out at E1) Officers were attending and had classes of their own.  At this time, the govt felt it inappropriate for lower enlisted to see weakness in officers so wouldn't let the enlisted get better grades in the same class.  (I.E.  why is he an officer if I can do this better than him and I am just a lowly little private?)  We even had a few officers spouses attending class (those assigned to diplomatic stations)  All branches of govt use DLI.  We had all 4 branches of military, a few FBI and a couple of CIA that I knew of.  The length of the course depends on the difficulty of the language.  Level 1 (spanish) is about 3 months.  Level 4 (Chinese, Japanese) is 47 weeks.  Russian, although a level 3 is still 47 weeks.  Although I was able to maintain grades with my "extra curricular" activities, DLI is NOT an easy school.  I was fortunate to have a natural ability to learn languages.  Most important about DLI is to forget what you learned in english classes.  I learned more about English studying Japanese than I ever learned in school.  Just be warned, it is an extremely difficult school.  It is not easy to get in and is more difficult to graduate.  While I was there we had 2 suicides, not counting the one 1 week before I arrived.  Remember, you have a test every day.  You will be totally immersed in the language.  After a few weeks, you will not use English at all in class.  You will make some of the best friends you ever had in that class, establish some rivalries and may even make a few enemies jealous of grades.  Also, do not expect to be able to speak natively upon graduation.  Different languages are structured differently so this may not apply.  I could go out in Japan and get along just fine with the public.  I could discuss anything military with the troops.  I learned and immense amount about the culture, but don't even think to ask me to describe an alternator or an air conditioning compressor.  Japanese is too career specific in writing and terminology for that.  It would take about 5 years of DLI to learn what they learn growing up.  One of my favorite memories of DLI was sitting in the day room translating the movie "Shogun" for the people in my barracks.  (had my back turned and they were testing me.  Had a blast every night that week).  If you can go, I strongly recommend it.  Just be ready to study hard because you are mixing advanced college courses with the military stresses.  Good luck.

He is more right then you think. The first enlistment is an 8 year hitch. Split it up however you like but you will do 8 years total time. Whatever time you do not spend on AD/ARNG/USAR you will spend on IRR status. After 8 years you are free and clear of your initial enlistment.

Service Obligation from any service academy or ROTC is 5 years.

Service Obligations for professional training vary by service.  For example...Navy Pilot is 8 years for jet pilots from the time you earn your wings.  7 years for helos and props.  

The 8 year enlistment statement was confirmed by BYU.  The recruiters won't tell you this and its not listed as part of the normal job description.  You might say its in the "fine print" when it comes time to sign your enlistment papers.

Ya gotta take the DLAB and pass it first. I took it, passed, but decided my future was to be as a civilian so I did my time and got out. Later in a reserve unit I met a guy who was a presidio grad. He learned russian and from what he told me they do not teach you to speak the language but rather to learn to listen for key words or phrases. Very smart but very weird guy, I liked him though.
The DLAB is the only test I have ever took that made mt brain sweat, it was a summabitch if ever there was one.

The screening process for DLI is based on your asvab(if they still call it that) or entrance exam. I f they think you have possibilities you will get a language exam based on your entrance exam.

wrong GT, if you ASVAB high enough you must take the D-LAB test which is a pre-enlistment aptitude battery for to measure youre ability to pick up a language.

if i were you M4, i would just enlist in the guard or reserve regardless of education. im in the USMC-R now and most of the enlisted guys are toting degrees. that way you can make some real money and still get that "young careless enlisted guy" experience. enjoy it. dont seek out the burdens of leadership. just my .02 if you join the MD guard they run a national guard OCS out at camp frettard which is comprised of a years worth of drill weekends. it has to be the easiest way to get commissioned on the planet.   enjoy!