Central American FAO Conference
CPT Grady Reece
U.S. Army Representative, USMILGP Guatemala
USMILGP Guatemala hosted the first annual Central American FAO Conference in Antigua,
Guatemala on 20 and 21 June 1999. Over a dozen FAOs from DAOs and SAOs in Guatemala, El Salvador
and Costa Rica attended the event, whose primary purpose was to update them on the impact of OPMS XXI
on FAOs and their professional development. The keynote speaker was MG Alfred A. Valenzuela, Deputy
Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Southern Command, and the Army's senior 48B. Additionally, MAJ Phil
Battaglia, the 48B Assignments Officer from PERSCOM, briefed the officers on the initial board results
under the new OER system and OPMS XXI.
This event originated after discussions with fellow deployed FAOs in which we often found ourselves
with many opinions on what OPMS XXI ought to do, but little agreement on what we thought it was
actually going to do. In spite of reading professional journals and checking the PERSCOM home page, we
realized that we were not in a position to make sound decisions regarding assignments and career
progression. In my case, I found myself having a completely different view of my own potential than did
LTC Jim Brown, who was then my assignments officer. As humbling as it is to admit, I thought that I was
eligible for "out-to-pasture" assignments while he seemed to think that I was still "in the hunt" (his words).
Doing a quick poll of other FAOs, we thought an old-fashioned officer professional development session
would help us all. Fortunately, so did MG Valenzuela when we approached him. He gave us his
enthusiastic support.
The conference was held at the Casa Santo Domingo in Antigua Guatemala, a beautiful former
monastery built in the late 1500's. It was mostly destroyed (for the third time) in 1773 when a major
earthquake emptied a high mountain lake, flooding the old Spanish capital of Central America. The hotel
has been built among the ruins, maintaining the ambiance of a historical site while providing luxurious, if
rustic accommodations. Only 45 minutes from the capital, it has become "the" place to stay in Guatemala.
In fact, the First Lady stayed at the Casa Santo Domingo during her visit in November 1998. Antigua itself
is full of ruins, historical buildings, and quaint shops and restaurants. Many of the officers brought their
families so that they could enjoy the sights of this beautiful town while we slaved away in the conference.
Phil Battaglia hit the ground running. Arriving around noon on Sunday, we quickly sequestered him
in my house for personal interviews. Two FAO trainees, CPT Paul DeCecca and CPT Ed Bonfoey, were
attending the Guatemalan Army's officer advanced course and had to leave early the next morning for a
field exercise in the mountains of Huehuetenango. Then, loaded down with power point slides, computer
projection equipment, laptops, and the indispensable microfiche reader (whatever happened to switching
from fiche to compact disks?), we hit the road to Antigua to join the rest of the group.
For those who may want to host their own conferences, I highly recommend including the families in
the conference and in as many other activities as possible in spite of the personal expense. Although many
of the officers knew each other at least professionally, the dinner gave the spouses and children an
opportunity to meet and get to know each other. By the end of the evening, we had developed a sense of
community that set a comfortable tone for the rest of the conference.
During the dinner, MG Valenzuela spoke to the assemblage on the future of the FAO program and the
opportunities and challenges FAOs will meet in next century. He was extremely optimistic on the future of
the program and its importance to the military. His talk included the spouses as part of the team, letting
them know what to expect in the way of assignments and progression for their FAOs.
Next morning, US Ambassador to Guatemala Donald J. Planty welcomed the participants. An ardent
proponent of the FAO program, Ambassador Planty gave a short talk on the value of the professionally
trained FAO in the successful formulation and implementation of US foreign policy in the countries to
which we are assigned. MG Valenzuela expanded on his talk of the previous night, speaking on how
OPMS XXI will impact promotions and assignments for FAOs, the demise of dual tracking, and what the
Army expects the FAO to be. Additionally, he talked about the new OER and how senior leaders interpret
the reports.
Following MG Valenzuela's remarks, MAJ Battaglia gave the PERSCOM brief. He analyzed recent
board results in terms of the impact of the new OER and OPMS XXI. One sign that the new system is
working is the fact that many FAOs had not commanded battalions but were being promoted to O6 on the
basis of their strengths as FAOs. Following his briefing, Phil spent the rest of the day giving personal
interviews. There is nothing so sobering as having your record laid bare by an objective and exacting
assignments officer.
MAJ Troy Busby, the Assistant Army Attaché, and I, the Army Representative in the MILGP,
gave briefings on the recent activities of our offices. Originally envisioned as tools to let FAOs in
neighboring countries know what was going on in Guatemala, these briefings transitioned into a discussion
of how we operate. They gave us an opportunity to compare notes on our experiences over the last year,
especially in terms of the support we provided to both our host nations and deployed US forces in the wake
of Hurricane Mitch. We became so engrossed in the discussions that we ended up working through lunch
and the rest of the day without a break.
We want to thank all those officers who joined us to make this conference a success. In particular, we
want to thank MG Valenzuela for supporting this effort and providing the funding for MAJ Battaglia. We
appreciated his insights into the new system and his willingness to share his knowledge and experience with
us. We also appreciated the effort MAJ Battaglia made to travel down here to give us such an outstanding
brief and candid interviews. He really went the extra mile.
2000, Foreign Area Officer Association
Springfield, Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve
Gotowicki.
http://www.faoa.org