Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
analysts -- and others -- a lot of guvmint agencies have been sending people to other nations (a bunch of them...) for a couple of years or more as civilians and in various modes to live on the economy and learn the culture as you suggest. Been doing it for years, a lot of years, even before WW II and in large numbers since then. Most everyone here's aware of that.

Fear's not an issue. Excessive publicity about it isn't helpful to a lot of programs though it is not classified. Just Google 'foreign area specialists' and skim the subjects on the first eight or ten pages.

Sometimes all of us wrongfully assume that everyone knows all the things we know...
I wasn't gonna go there just yet.

An excellent point, Ken. I have the utmost respect for those and the FAO program in general. Regretfully, most know little about our service's finest. Little however need be said, and attention we don't need.

At about the 10-year 'time in service' mark, a single individual can, and often does pay back his/her service training ten-fold.