The language program at the United State Air Force Academy is described with emphasis on its upper track courses that are designed to prepare area specialists to interact with their foreign counterparts. Air Force officers assigned to Latin America, for example, may serve as experts in political-military affairs, foreign military sales, or as staff officers handling Latin American issues at U.S. Southern Command Headquarters or at the Pentagon. This paper describes the Spanish component of the Latin American Area Specialist Program, which is designed primarily for students majoring in history, political science, or geography with a specialization in Latin America. It is available to students with other majors whose primary interest is to improve their language skills while studying the target culture. The language component of the program consists of two tracks of four courses beyond the basic or intermediate level of Spanish. The upper division track, which is emphasized in this paper, is designed around a concept of culture developed by anthropologist Leslie White and involves four major components of culture: ideology, institutions, attitudes, and technology. The upper level language curriculum consists of four courses covering Latin American culture, culture and civilization, Spanish literature, and research and stylistics. Contains 9 references. (LB)