ARMY Proponent Notes -- December 1997

Whether you prefer the term "azimuth check" or "program appraisal", every organization benefits from validating current initiatives in light of its past history and vision of the future. The FAO Proponent has recently completed such a revalidation "snapshot", the essence of which is captured in a briefing entitled "FAOs -- Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." Below are some excerpts which should be of interest to the FAO community.

Subsequent to a brief discussion of the Enhanced FAO Program of 1984 and the historical demarcation provided by the end of the Cold War, the "YESTERDAY" portion of this brief underlines the requirement as it was perceived during the mid-1980s for preparing the FAO Program to meet the challenges of a changing operational environment.

Our concept of today's situation reveals U.S. Army "world-class FAOs" occupying key positions around the world, serving as force multipliers for CINCs, component commanders and ambassadors. These officers embody those forward deployed, on the "ground assets" that support our combat forces worldwide. Our focus at the Proponent with this current population of FAOs is one of program maintenance. It is to ensure that both their training and assignments are commensurate with the Army's goal of providing broad-based regionalists who retain a solid understanding of our own forces and doctrine for our own forces and doctrine for service in all facets of FAO work.

Our future mission is to develop Army FAOs in consonance with the goals of the Army After Next. We know it takes about 13 years to train and develop a qualified FAO colonel and that in the last 10 years, the number of countries in the world has grown by about 25. The world community is still in a state of flux and FAO requirements will probably increase. Hence, the Proponent's focus will be to optimize graduate school and in-country training experiences to address these future needs and shape the FAO population to meet the emerging international environment.

We at the Proponent regard the entire FAO community as a valuable body of concerned professionals. We admittedly do not have a monopoly on good ideas. In this regard, we once again encourage all FAOs to communicate to us those items which you regard as significant for our program's future.

Regards,
Chuck Doroski, COL, USA, FAO Proponent Chief.

1997, Foreign Area Officer Association
Springfield, Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve Gotowicki
http://www.faoa.org