09L (pronounced "Oh Nine Lima") is a Military Occupational Specialty in the United States army involving translators/interpreters.

History

09L began in February 2003 as a pilot program for recruiting Arabic, Dari Persian, and Pashto speakers. It became an official Military Occupational Specialty in February 2006.

Current demand

The languages/dialects needed are:

• Arabic-Modern Standard
• Arabic-Gulf-Iraqi
• Arabic-Egyptian
• Arabic-Jordanian
• Arabic-Syrian
• Arabic-Lebanese
• Arabic-Yemeni
• Arabic-Sudanese
• Arabic-Maghrebi
• Arabic-Algerian
• Arabic-Libyan
• Arabic-Moroccan
• Arabic-Tunisian
• Pushtu/Pashto/Pachto
• Pushtu-Afghan
• Kurdish
• Kurmanji Kurdish
• Sorani Kurdish
• Dari Persian
• Iranian Persian

As of 2011 the Army is just recruiting 09L who can speak Pashto languge, due to the end of operations in Iraq the Army has stopped recruiting Arabic speaking 09L.

References

• Interpreter/Translator (09L)
• official site

See also

• 33W
• List of United States Army MOS