USMC Submission for Fao Association Journal (March 2002)

By Major Patrick J. Carroll, USMC

The principal emphasis over the past quarter with the USMC International Affairs Officer Program has been preparing to send some of our first USMC FAOs to In-Country Training (ICT) in India, Turkey, Greece, and Russia. While the US Army has in fact had officers in these sites for years, these are "new sites" for us, and they constitute the Marine Corps' continuing effort to expand and improve our current program, and to start training regional specialists in all the areas around the world where our Corps sees itself having some equity in the future. By the end of September 2002, we should have officers in these four sites as well as the following sites: Capt Cho in Korea, Majors Williams and Gundlach in Croatia, Maj Holahan in Latvia, Maj Madden in Oman, and Capt Connable in Egypt. Capt Martin is heading out to China in the next month to replace Capt McDonald, and Capt Benitez will likewise be joining Capt Cho in Korea. We are also replacing an East Asia FAO, Capt Mollohan, in Bangkok to work through the Joint U.S. Military Advisor Group (JUSMAG) for his year of ICT. At the present time, we are also looking for a suitable location for our first East Asian (Philippines/Tagalog speaker) FAO and we should have that settled by mid-summer. In the next couple of years, we will also be placing "pioneer" FAOs in Senegal and Jordan. Congratulations are in order to Maj Williams, Maj Holahan, and Capt Holahan for a successful year at their ICT sites; all three will be returning to the United States by the end of the summer. Welcome back.

Our program office just finished hosting 16 Marines and several officers from the Army and Air National Guard, US Army, US Navy, and US Air Force for an Orientation Trip to the Washington, DC area. Coordinated through the Naval Postgraduate School with the assistance of former Ambassador Rodney Minott (now the senior lecturer in the National Security Affairs program at NPS), these officers had a chance to receive regionally-oriented briefings at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, the State Department, and Headquarters Marine Corps. The week-long informational trip culminated in a good-will visit to the Finnish Embassy, and a fine dinner at Old Ebbitt's Grill.

Additionally, the Program Coordinator had another great opportunity to head out to the Monterey Bay area to visit all of our students at either the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) or the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in April 2002. The Branch Head for PLU, Col O'Keefe, also came out for two days and delivered a briefing to the FAO/RAOs on the current state of affairs of our various International Affairs Officer Programs. We had the good fortune likewise to talk to COL Rice, Commandant of DLI; COL Fuentes, the Army FAO Program Director at DLI; and CAPT Petho, the Vice Superintendent at NPS in our on-going effort to improve our program. Thanks go out to the Army and Navy at both DLI and NPS for their assistance to the Marine Corps FAO/RAO Program. It has been a pleasure working with you all for the past three years.

On that note, I have been the Program Coordinator for the Marine Corps' International Affairs Officer Program for the past three years, and I am moving on. I will depart my current billet on 7 June 2002 and report to Marine Corps University, Marine Corps Base, Quantico, VA to attend the School of Advance Warfighting (SAW). My replacement, LtCol John May, is a Naval Flight Officer and a school-trained Chinese FAO. He and I have already had a chance to conduct a turnover in late May, and he will soon depart his current command at the Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific (EWTGPAC) in Coronado, CA and report to PLU, PP&O in early July. He and I have already made great progress with our budget requests, and recommended utilization assignments for FY03. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of those individuals who I have worked with over the past three years to keep the Marine Corps FAO/RAO Program moving along a positive track. I would like to especially thank the Army's FAO Program from which I gained quite a bit of insight early on in my time at HQMC, the various Services' Program Managers, and of course my own office (both past and present regional desk officers and FAO/RAO Program Managers). I truly enjoyed my time in this position, and I look forward to seeing the Marine Corps' program continue to improve. Best wishes to all, and Semper Fidelis.

2002, Foreign Area Officer Association
Springfield, Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve Gotowicki.
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