KUDOS TO OPMS XXI!
(Sept 1997)

Joseph D. Tullbane, III. FAOA President and Member of the Board of Governors

Some of our readers have suggested that my first two editorials were too negative. In response, I believe that the Association owes it to our membership to be objective even when that objectivity causes some unhappiness. But I also agree that my editorials need to show the good as well as the bad.

In line with this, I want to take my hat off to the officers who made up the OPMS XXI Task Force and who have done yeomen's work coming to grips with the future personnel needs for the U.S. Army of the next century. Their efforts formed a key element in the reformation process of our Army to make it a weapon truly fit to meet the challenges of a new era. Much of what they have done flies in the face of conventional wisdom and will almost certainly be resisted by traditionalists. We FAOs, retired and active, need to step forward and support the efforts of OPMS XXI. There is a danger that the slow implementation process established for the new system renders it particularly vulnerable to the "nay sayers" and therefore now, more than ever, it requires our support.

Will OPMS XXI help FAO? When it is fully implemented, the answer is a resounding yes. Even if it is only partially implemented, the new system will be a positive force for change. Further, it will also help many of the other lower density specialties critical to the success of our army in the next century.

The fact is that we owe our two representatives on the task force, LTC Dees (48G) and MAJ Szentkiralyi (48C), a real vote of thanks for their work on behalf of the entire FAO community. Now we need to band together to build on what these officers have helped create and pour our efforts into molding new generations of better, more qualified strategic scouts, soldier diplomats, and FAO pointmen of the greatest force projection army of the next century.

Thanks to a visionary Chief of Staff (GEN Reimer), the leadership of MG Ohle at the OPMS XXI Task Force, and the work of the outstanding task force team, the U.S. Army has a window of opportunity to become the most efficient combat force in American history. KUDOS TO ALL for another step in leading the U.S. Army into the 21st Century!!

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