In this issue, I won't get on a soap box, or exhort you to support various programs, or find fault with our Service efforts at improving the use of FAO's worldwide.
As you might have noticed in the last issue of the journal, I am moving on and at least in part passing the baton of the organization on to other worthy individuals who will keep this organization growing. LTC(R) Rick Herrick will be handling the membership database, as well as the FAOA E-mail site. If he can't answer your questions, he will pass them on to someone who can, me included. Just so you know, he is a great guy and a stellar FAO. LTC(R) Bob Olson will expand his current duties of treasurer to include the bookkeeping for the Association. He is also a great FAO and highly experienced with the Association. Last, but certainly not least, the Journal will be taken over by COL Dave Smith. Dave is the best! A top-notch FAO and a true professional. LTC Steve Gotowick will continue as one of the best webmasters in the business. In short, as I ease out of the lime-light, I feel that I am leaving the Association with a superb team.
While I will stay on the Board of Governors, I also hope to pass the Presidency on to one of the other Board members (remember! The post of president is appointed by the Board, not elected).
Now to the Sermon that I promised I would not give. The FAO Specialty and its Association is a fragile entity. The potential effect that this specialty could have for the Services, for DoD, and for the nation's international policy is incredibly large. It is a national resource that remains largely untapped, partially because the man-on-the-street doesn't understand what we do or worse doesn't see what we do as contributing to the war-fighting missions of the Armed Forces.
It is incumbent on each of us to try to get the word out, through words and actions, and ensure that the military and civilian decision-makers within State Department, the Defense Department, and the Services understand how the FAO tool can be used as a force multiplier, especially in peacetime. With the United States increasingly involved in humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping, and peacemaking missions around the world, the value of having officers on the ground who KNOW THE REGION, KNOW THE LANGUAGE, and have contacts at the mid and high levels of the appropriate governments is enormous. You are those people! Your actions are your credentials!
As an "Old FAO" (I can't believe I'm writing that), it is my job to mentor the younger of our crowd, as well as to act as a conscience for the program. But it isn't just my job, it is the job of every "Old FAO" to do this. We need to seek to improve FAO in every way for the good of the specialty, the Service, and the country. SCOUTS FORWARD!