Excellent and insightful treatment! Bravo and kudos to both accomplished and articulate authors!
This article suggests traces of a lingering background in the historical context of our Army's earlier and short-lived Military Assistance Officer Program (MAOP), which was established in the early 1970s as the war in SE Asia/VN was winding down.
In addition to the long-validated benefit of integrating qualified FAOs to support the success of USG SC-related activities at the level of DAO / SCOs, curious if policy-makers at Department of the Army (DA) level have likewise considered integrating, embedding, attaching, or otherwise selecting and providing qualified DAOs to provide direct and substantive support to the Security Force Assistance Command (SFAC) and its SFA Brigades which have designated regional alignments. In view of the extensive and "ground truth"-level and related preparations (i.e., IRT etc.), a FAO seems uniquely qualified to advise and assist a SFAB as that unit's (ahem) "two-way cultural clarifier and counterpart explainer."
While our Army's Military Advisor Training Academy (MATA) at Fort Benning has at least one FAO on its faculty, there seem no follow-on structure or procedure to providing FAOs as needed (i.e., augmentation or on-call TDY, etc.) to advise, sensitize, and assist any outbound elements/teams of a sending SFAB with region- and country-specific preparation.
** FWIW, one prime aspect of a FAO's role in preparation of US elements is presenting and clarifying the dynamics, sensitivities, characteristics, and customary patterns of (ahem) "followership" of the foreign counterpart (CP), as that background can heavily influence that CP's tendency to seek, request, accept, consider, integrate, and act on advice offered by a foreign (i.e., US, Russian, et al) advisor or trainer. Much evidence exists about such matters about previous US experience and that of the "competition," such as Russian/Soviet advisors and their Chinese (PRC variety) equivalents in the CENTCOM and AFRICOM AORs..
Excellent and insightful treatment! Bravo and kudos to both accomplished and articulate authors!
This article suggests traces of a lingering background in the historical context of our Army's earlier and short-lived Military Assistance Officer Program (MAOP), which was established in the early 1970s as the war in SE Asia/VN was winding down.
In addition to the long-validated benefit of integrating qualified FAOs to support the success of USG SC-related activities at the level of DAO / SCOs, curious if policy-makers at Department of the Army (DA) level have likewise considered integrating, embedding, attaching, or otherwise selecting and providing qualified DAOs to provide direct and substantive support to the Security Force Assistance Command (SFAC) and its SFA Brigades which have designated regional alignments. In view of the extensive and "ground truth"-level and related preparations (i.e., IRT etc.), a FAO seems uniquely qualified to advise and assist a SFAB as that unit's (ahem) "two-way cultural clarifier and counterpart explainer."
While our Army's Military Advisor Training Academy (MATA) at Fort Benning has at least one FAO on its faculty, there seem no follow-on structure or procedure to providing FAOs as needed (i.e., augmentation or on-call TDY, etc.) to advise, sensitize, and assist any outbound elements/teams of a sending SFAB with region- and country-specific preparation.
** FWIW, one prime aspect of a FAO's role in preparation of US elements is presenting and clarifying the dynamics, sensitivities, characteristics, and customary patterns of (ahem) "followership" of the foreign counterpart (CP), as that background can heavily influence that CP's tendency to seek, request, accept, consider, integrate, and act on advice offered by a foreign (i.e., US, Russian, et al) advisor or trainer. Much evidence exists about such matters about previous US experience and that of the "competition," such as Russian/Soviet advisors and their Chinese (PRC variety) equivalents in the CENTCOM and AFRICOM AORs..
FAOs Forward!
Stephen H. Franke
LTC, FAO (FA 48 G - Middle East)/SC &SFA
US Army Retired
Correction to mistyping of an entry in my post (above)
SHOULD BE: ...providing qualified FAOs to provide...