US Army Foreign Area Officer Program Trains
Future Strategic Thinkers
- the Army's "Soldier- Statesman."

The Army's Foreign Area Officer (FAO) Program is designed to train and develop officers to meet worldwide requirements for officers skilled in the analysis of regional military/security, economic, social, cultural, psychological or political policies and issues that potentially impact on the military-political environment. Positions filled by Army FAOs typically include: Attachés, Security Assistance Officers, Political-Military Officers, Liaison Officers, Advisors, Arms Control Specialists, and Instructors. FAOs combine professional military skills with regional expertise, language competency and politico-military awareness. They offer a unique combination of skills to advance U.S. interests in a region. A FAO can best be described as the Army's "Soldier-Statesman."

The life cycle of a FAO is based on three pillars: institutional training, operational assignments and self-development. These three aspects focus and shape FAO management in terms of accession, training, and utilization. The program entails a lengthy education and training commitment to develop officers who will serve as regional specialists in the grades of major, lieutenant colonel and colonel.

Officers are accessed into the FAO functional area (FA 48) as captains (between their 5th and 6th years of service), based upon the needs of the Army, officer preference, GRE scores, language aptitude, military experience and, in some cases, undergraduate performance. However, they are not generally considered for FA 48 training and assignment until they are branch qualified in their basic branch. Moreover, officers are formally designated FA 48 only via the Army's Career Field Designation (CFD) Board (following selection to major, at the 10th year of service) or via a CFD transfer from another career field.

After successful completion of company level command, FAOs begin training between their eighth and tenth year of service. These officers undergo an intensive three-year developmental program in one of the nine FAO regional Areas Of Concentration (Americas - 48B, Europe - 48C, South Asia - 48D, Eurasia - 48E, China - 48F, Middle East/North Africa - 48G, Northeast Asia - 48H, Southeast Asia - 48I, and Africa - 48J). Each officer learns a foreign language, conducts in-country training (ICT) under the supervision of a senior FAO, and earns a regionally focused graduate degree. The Army sees all three phases as crucial to producing an officer fully qualified to provide political-military expertise at the operational and strategic levels and across the full spectrum of military operations.

FA 48 incorporates a professional officer development career plan offering maximum diversity for schooling and assignment. The Army currently supports approximately 710 FAO authorizations worldwide with a total of 1062 FA 48 officers, which includes over 200 FAOs in training. Of these positions, only 25% are in Army organizations and approximately 75% are in Department of Defense and other activities. FAOs serve best where they actively support operational and strategic requirements and, not surprisingly, the majority of Army FAO billets are in overseas locations.

LTC Ray Hodgkins/(703) 693-2198

2004, Foreign Area Officer Association
Herndon, Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve Gotowicki.
http://www.faoa.org