FAO, OPMS 21, and the future
I well remember advising my Leavenworth students who were FAOs in the mid 90s that their career choice was a crap shoot as far as promotion was concerned. If they played their cards right and were lucky, they might make LTC or COL. If they were very lucky they could get a star. If, however their timing was wrong, they could enjoy their assignments and retire as a Major. Then came OPMS 21 which seemed to regularize the promotion system. Now a FAO can expect to retire as a LTC or a COL. But we have seen the last of the General Officer FAOs - more than a pity, a tragedy. It was because GEN Fred Woerner was a FAO that we got post-conflict Panama right. And, it may not too far a stretch to say that we got everything after that either wrong or less than optimal because Generals Schwartzkopf, Hoar, Admiral Miller, and GEN Franks were not. (This is not to say that these Flags were either the same or got everything wrong or that they were totally responsible - they did have superiors like SECDEF Rumsfeld, after all...)
Kilkullen, Luttwak and Why the Troops Should Leave Iraq