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| In the beginning of 2004, Operational Support and Services, Inc. (OSS), a private corporation specializing in military consulting and training, was directed by the Deputy Secretary of Defense of the U.S. to provide Bilingual Bicultural Advisors (BBAs) of Iraqi descent or origin to support the reconstruction and capacity building efforts in Iraq. These professional men and women from the Iraqi exile community would possess all the critical skills and functional area expertise needed to assist in rebuilding the country of Iraq. In the fall of 2004 The Bilingual Bicultural Advisor–Subject Matter Expert (BBA-SME) Program came on line and OSS began to recruit candidates to meet the DEPSECDEF’s directive. The first BBA candidates to meet the selection criteria of the program were trained in Fayetteville, NC in December 2004 then deployed to Iraq in January 2005. The outstanding success of this initial group strongly reinforced the need for these types of professionals in every functional area of expertise, from governance assistance to business development to criminal/civil law. As a result of the positive response and the documented successes of BBA efforts, the Deputy Secretary of Defense concurred with recommendations to expand the initial requirements of BBAs and to extend the program through 2006. The BBA–SME program has continued to demonstrate its ability to succeed in all functional areas and under all conditions, resulting in BBAs being requested and utilized in every major city of each of the 18 provinces. |
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