diff --git a/common/tasks/locale.yml b/common/tasks/locale.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d6ca5f14ef2b3730d2e637ec6ca650afaa816d63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/tasks/locale.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+
+- apt: name=locales state=latest
+  tags:
+    - packages
+    - locale
+
+- locale_gen: name=en_US.UTF-8 state=present
+  tags:
+    - config
+    - locale
+
diff --git a/common/tasks/main.yml b/common/tasks/main.yml
index 1531f1d2fb99235be9f5295dfe1423ac8db519c9..d50223f47c94c9e515efedf95b26eaaec49c6923 100644
--- a/common/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/common/tasks/main.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 
 - include: filesystem.yml
 - meta: flush_handlers
+- include: locale.yml
+- meta: flush_handlers
 - include: repositories.yml
 - meta: flush_handlers
 - include: dns.yml