Defense Language Institute

The Defense Language Institute (DLI) was established in 1941 as the Military Intelligence Service Language School at the Presidio of San Francisco to train linguists in Japanese during World War II. It later expanded to teach a wide variety of strategic languages critical to U.S. military and intelligence operations. In 1946, the school relocated to the Presidio of Monterey in California, where it became known as the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. Today, DLI serves all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, providing intensive language instruction to support global military missions and national security efforts.