Army In-Country Training -- African Style

By LTC Ben Reed, USA

The Army currently operates seven In- Country Training (ICT), sites in sub- Saharan Africa. The ICT site in the West African country of Cameroon provides an outstanding opportunity for a developing Foreign Area Officer (FAO) to acquire the background necessary to become a regional expert. One FAO per year conducts training in Cameroon beginning in January. The officer must be a captain or a major and a 2/2 in French. Officers assigned to Cameroon for ICT live in government leased housing and are authorized a consumables weight allowance. The opportunity for a new FAO to receive exposure to the complexities of Africa is one of the strong points of this ICT site.

The FAO in Cameroon attends the 14 week-long Cameroonian Staff Officers Course that is taught in French. When not in school, the FAO is assigned as an intern in the Defense Attache Office (DAO) at the U.S. Embassy in the capital city of Youande. The internship provides the chance to learn about embassies and how they work. Many of the embassies in Africa are small, which gives the FAO greater access and an increased opportunity to understand how an embassy functions. The current FAO has had the opportunity as a DAO intern to travel with the ambassador and to coordinate with the Cameroonian military for the deployment of a Joint Combined Exercise Training (JCET) team, a MEDFLAG and a US Navy ship visit. These events provide invaluable exposure to typical missions that a sub-Saharan African FAO can expect to work for years to come.

In addition to intern duties, the FAO in Cameroon conducts local and regional travel. The ICT site has a government owned vehicle to facilitate FAO trips, something that is not always easy on African roads, especially during the rainy season! The current FAO has attended a British peacekeeping school in Ghana and has studied the workings of the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) first hand. Normally the officer at the ICT site in Cameroon has the opportunity to travel and conduct research in each major region of sub-Saharan Africa.

The combination of host nation military schooling, embassy experience, and regional travel make this one of the most versatile sites to train Army FAOS in sub-Saharan Africa.




2000, Foreign Area Officer Association
Springfield, Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve Gotowicki.
http://www.faoa.org