Staying Green

By COL Bruce Boevers (June 1997)

FAOs are billed as the soldier-statesmen of the Army. That's who we are; that's what makes us special. We are soldiers who have developed special skills as statesmen in our regions of responsibility. There is a reason why the soldier-statesmen moniker is in that order. We are first and foremost soldiers, not foreign service officers in uniform. The farther we wander from our roots, the greater we risk irrelevancy. One of the greatest challenges most of us face is the requirement to "stay green." This challenge begins with the FAO professional development process and continues for as long as we stay on active duty. The problem can be exacerbated by Army requirements for back-to-back assignments away from the "real Army."

From the perspective in the field, there are several reasons FAOs need to stay green. They concern both our legitimacy and our competitiveness. Although this piece refers predominantly to DAO/SAO organizations, the principles apply to other FAO assignments away from the Army, such as joint and multinational staffs. First, and foremost, we are the military experts on the country team. With fewer and fewer FSOs coming from the military, the role of military advisor to the ambassador and pol-mil partner in the embassy has grown. Second, we are the U.S. military experts in our countries of accreditation. Our hosts expect us to know about our own Army as we learn about theirs. Hand in hand with the credibility function is the legitimacy function. Many other countries send "professional attaches" to embassy postings abroad. I have shared several outings here in Finland with attaches who have no idea how their own military functions. Many show up in adverse field conditions without a clue about how to dress or behave. In many host countries, being a warrior and communicating soldier to soldier draw respect from host nation militaries. Little things like fieldcraft and military savvy earn huge dividends in the eyes of our hosts. Finally, our Army comrades expect us to be soldiers. We scare enough of our fellow officers by speaking in tongues as it is. By sharing common experience and expertise, we look like the real soldiers we are.

As with all things, wishing doesn't make it happen. Each of us has to take concrete steps to ensure that we stay on the cutting edge of our profession. Several measures are relatively easy. For instance, maintaining an active professional reading program is a relatively low cost, high pay-off activity. I had a boss (now a FAOA board member) who made me read the Leavenworth reading list on my commute. Even alternating books between Clausewitz and Robert Ludlum to maintain my sanity, I had more than enough time to finish the list, courtesy of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. In the field, the challenge is keeping up with all the latest changes in equipment and doctrine. Here, subscriptions to professional journals are the only hope. Conversely, when serving in troop units, it is incumbent on all of us to maintain our regional expertise through professional reading, academic contacts, and whatever other means.

A second key measure is to maintain professional military education. The Army appears to be the only service which places so much emphasis on PME. If anything, we in the Army have tended to be overzealous in our attention to the selection process. Nonetheless, every FAO should compete fiercely to complete both MEL-4 and MEL-1 requirements at appropriate times during his/her career. Even miracle olonels (promoted without battalion command or MEL-1) should accept the gracious invitation of the Army to complete the War College. In addition to the MEL cour ses, the Army War College used to offer a strategy course to field grade officers. This course is a great background course supporting both the FAO grad school experience and other PME.

Last, and perhaps most (certainly not least), is assignment progression. Real soldiers hold real soldier jobs. A young FAO once told me he had picked up our functional area to seek back to back assignments where he wouldn't have to give Article 15s or do PT. WRONG ANSWER. Even if you accept my analysis of why FAOs need to stay green and what we need to do to accomplish that mission, the how often remains somewhat elusive. Least under our personal control is the assignment process. This is the situation already, and OPMS XXI may further limit options. The bottom line is to seek tough assignments with troops as long as the Army will let you. The "been there, done that" T-shirt is worth its weight in gold. The major challenge to maintaining professional reading and education is clearly that of time. We are all hard-charging, can-do, more-to-do-than-we-have-time-for officers. Professional competency is not a hobby. Like physical training, it is part of the mission and we have to make the time to accomplish the mission. Steal time, was the guidance of one instructor. Steal from lunch, steal from bed, steal from the bus, program duty time. Do not steal from the family. If the above analysis based on my FAO experiences contradicts the proponent or the personnel command, I apologize in advance. I have been blessed with a wonderful career, which in the absence of SERBS, I intend to continue. I have seen the FAO program from almost every conceivable angle, and I am convinced that FAOs are force multipliers in increasingly multinational environments. If the "system" screws us, shame on the leadership, if we screw ourselves, shame on us.

COL Bruce Boevers was formerly the Army Attache to Helsinki, Finland, and is the European Division Chief in DIA/DHS.

1997, Foreign Area Officer Association
Springfield, Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve Gotowicki.
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