FAOs would rotate between branch and FAO assignments with no penalty for the extended FAO training. Well, the world is not ideal. The attempt to fix some of the inequities that came in OPM XXI did smooth out the FAO career path to rank, Unlike the bad old days, few of today's FAOs will retire as Majors while many more than in the past will retire as full Colonels. What won't happen is that FAOs will not make general without the help of the Fairy Godmother Department (which everyone knows is quixotic at best). So, there will be no more Fred Woerners, Karl Eikenberrys, John Ellersons, Joe Stringhams, et. al.

A second point is that if you want to put FAOs in command positions for MiTTs, you will have to direct the command selection boards to weight FAO much more highly. In the bad old days, this kind of thing was done, but haphazardly. That was, in fact, how John Waghelstein got selected for Colonel and was positioned to be selected to command MILGP El Salvador.

Third, I beg to differ on language. In my experience (48 years in and out of Latin America) the way to keep language up and advance it is to use it. That means being assigned to places where the opportunity exists to live and work "on the economy." Additional training may be nice but it really doesn't beat using the language every day. Generally, the FAO who uses the language does so by choice. It is easy enough to fall back on working in English and socializing with English speaking nationals. And no amount of additional training is going to overcome that propensity.

Fourth, the ability to empathize with another culture is something that cannot be taught. Some have it, some don't. Education and training can enhance the ability or conversely, give those who don't a degree of sensitivity to the issue. But this is a talent... and like all talents can't be taught.

Fifth, just because an officer is a FAO does not mean that the talents and skills are transferable in every case from region to region. While I have seen any number of FAOs who could and did operate well cross-culturally in multiple regions, I have also seen some who never could make the transition.

Sixth, it is essential to remember that as a FAO one is an American military officer who must be professionally current and competent to do his branch and FAO jobs. Indeed, the FAO must be generally current and competent in military matters because the FAO job will almost certainly cross branch (and even service) lines. Which brings us back to Old Eagle's comments on the bad old days. Dual tracking, IMO, generally was good for the FAO, the Army, DOD, and the nation. In fixing the inequities, we lost something that has yet to be regained.

Cheers

JohnT