Welcome from AFAOA Newsletter Editor
Welcome to the first bi-annual newsletter for 2025. In this newsletter we provide you updates from one of our senior Army FAO general officers, FAO Branch at HRC, FAO Proponent, highlight recent award and events, as well as provide you updated information on the association’s activities. I have greatly enjoyed my time as the AFAOA newsletter editor but unfortunately, I have decided to pass the torch to a new member. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be the first AFAOA editor and best wishes to the association! If you are interested in taking over the AFAOA newsletter editor position, please contact the association at armyfaoassociation@gmail.com. Thank-you for taking your time to read this edition!
Taft Blackburn, COL (Ret), 48E (Russian and Eurasian FAO) – Email: armyfaoa.editor@gmail.com
Comments from MG Garrick Harmon, 48E
Dear AFAOA Members!
Congratulations to all members on the recent one-year anniversary of our Association! This is a great initial milestone in what I hope is many more to come in the years ahead. As we celebrate this achievement and continue to grow, I wanted to take this opportunity to provide my thoughts on advancing the overall mission of the Association.
One of the foundational goals of AFAOA is to “enhance the study and practice of FAOs,” and this year we look to fully establish our academic journal Horizons: The Journal of the Army Foreign Area Officer Association. It is vital to our community and the Joint Force for FAOs to write, inform, and be informed. We can have an impact on global security issues and challenges, but we need the FAO voice and perspective to be effectively delivered and understood.
Another key goal of the Association is to “preserve and foster a spirit of mentorship and fellowship,” and a priority for this year is to establish a Mentoring Program that covers the entirety of a FAO career, from accession to transition. As members and leaders of this great community, we have a stewardship obligation to consistently improve upon our “gold standard” program, but with a renewed focus on better preparing FAOs and their families to serve and navigate their careers. This is also why AFAOA will couple the Mentoring Program with a Spouse Program. Leadership and mentorship cannot just be words; this must be our way of doing business at all levels. The first time a senior FAO reached out to me to discuss talent management and career progression was after the Army selected me for promotion to brigadier general. This personal experience is what drives me to do it better for the generations of FAOs that have followed. We all need to honor our past, learn from the experiences of those that have gone before us, and use that knowledge to better support FAOs over a career and shape innovative approaches to longstanding and emerging challenges. AFAOA is a way to do that; it is an invaluable mentorship and networking forum if you use it!
Recently my wife Nickie and I had the opportunity to be in Monterey for the JFAOC course. It would be an understatement to say that we were impressed, not just with the cadre from DLI, FAO Proponent, FAO Branch, and across the AOCs, but most importantly with the next generation of FAOs and their families. For Nickie and me, and for all the FAO General Officers, this is an absolute necessity and enjoyable chance to personally serve in a senior leader and mentor role. It is just one way in which we can give back to the next generation.
While there I had the great honor of formally inducting Dino Pick into the AFAOA Hall of Fame in the presence of the newest members of our community. He joins the Hall of Fame alongside John D’Agostino, Brian Davis, Robin Fontes, Mark Gillette, Charlie Hooper, John Leide, and Joe Rank – exceptional warrior-diplomats that have gone before us and continue to set the example for us all to follow. This event tangibly linked the past with our future: we have a storied history that must constantly be acknowledged, tended to, and advanced into the future. I have had the privilege of serving as an active-duty FAO since 1998. Over this time, I have worked with multiple generations of FAOs. Continuing to connect our past with the present and future is critical to the long-term strength, success, and viability of our community.
As always, thanks for all that you and your families do on behalf of our Army and our great Nation, far from home and in some pretty tough locations and environments. I am proud to serve with you and honored to be included amongst your ranks.
News from the FAO Branch Chief at Human Resources Command
Fellow FAOs,
Happy New Year! I hope this finds you and your families well and thank you for all you do. At the outset, I’d like to congratulate FAOs selected for promotion in the FY24 MAJ promotion board. The results were released on 7 January. The FY25 MAJ Promotion Selection Board (PSB) will convene on 18 June 2025. In addition, we expect results for the FY25 LTC PSB to be released mid-to-late April. The FY25 COL PSB concluded 31 January, and we anticipate results being published in June/July. SSC slating results will be published in late February or early March. As usual, there is a lot happening at HRC, and we are working hard on multiple fronts to ensure you all have all the support you need. We are busy cranking out assignment instructions for officers slated to move this summer. Please don’t panic if you have not yet received yours- we are diligently working to expedite them through the HRC approval chain. EFMP remains a problem, specifically officers not keeping their EFMP current. Even if you are not moving this summer, please check you EFMP status and update it if it’s expired or nearing expiration. Looking ahead, we will execute our first combined assignment market this spring from 31 March to 16 May. The combined market, which will be conducted outside the Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP) framework, will advertise DAS positions (2027), SCO positions (2026), and billets for officers identified as 26-01 winter movers. We realize there are many questions surrounding this market. To address these, will hold several townhalls the last week of February. These townhalls will provide an overview of the market, outline market guidance, and answer your questions about the market in general, and specifically how it will function and how officers will preference jobs. Career managers will send calendar invitations soon.
Christian Mitchell, LTC, U.S. Army, Branch Chief – FAO Branch, Army Human Resources Command, christian.m.mitchell.mil@army.mil
For members only – click here to access the recent HRC FAO Branch newsletter
News from Army FAO Proponent – HQDA G35
Army FAO Community,
It was a pleasure to join the FAO Proponent team this past August 2024. Over the last six months, it has been a real privilege to support our FAO community with a stellar team of FAOs within the Proponent office, as we provide structural and regulatory support to our functional area and directly support In-Region Training (IRT) FAOs. In this brief update, I will provide some historical context on the location of Proponent, highlight some organizational changes, and describe current priorities.
The Army FAO Proponent office, which is within the DAMO-SSF Division, has gone through some transition over the last number of years. Going back over two decades, the FAO Proponent office was located inside the Pentagon. In the years after 9/11, the office was moved to Crystal City, and most recently, in summer 2022, the office moved back to the Pentagon. Following an extended period of renovation in 2023-24, the Proponent office fully moved into its current spaces on the third floor in the same corridor as colleagues with DAMO-SSR (International Affairs).
In addition to some physical-location changes, the Army FAO Proponent office has been part of Army Staff, G-3/5 (DAMO-SS) Directorate reorganization. In the last decade, the DAMO-SSF Division was called the Strategic Leadership Division (SLD) and included three branches: FA48 (FAO) Proponent; FA59 (Strategist) Proponent; and the Army Strategic Broadening Seminars (SBS) and Fellowships branch. As part of the DAMO-SS reorganization in late 2024, DAMO-SSF changed its name to Strategic Development and Initiatives (SDI) Division, and incorporated three additional branches: Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response (CHMR) branch; Women Peace and Security (WPS); and Military Personnel Exchange Program (MPEP)/Schools of Other Nations (SON)/International Professional Military Education (IPME) branch.
This year, in addition to standard Proponent responsibilities, the Army FAO Proponent office is focusing on three priority lines of effort. First, we are supporting the FAO General Officer Steering Committee (GOSC) and Council of Colonels (CoC) with the implementation of several improvements to the FAO MEL-4 Training Pipeline, which were determined in fall 2024, after a CoC year-long review of the pipeline. The goal is to have these improvements implemented by September 2025. Second, in collaboration with HRC, we are researching and seeking measures to improve the Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP) process for FAOs. This has been tackled in the past by our predecessors; however, we are taking another look at EFMP because it is such an important issue for our community. Third, we are reviewing policy surrounding language requirements and pay. Specifically, we are researching our ability to better utilize and pay for the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) module of language testing, so that we can encourage our ability and sustainment in speaking foreign languages.
The Army FAO Proponent office exists to support the FAO community, and we welcome receiving feedback, so we can best address the needs and concerns of the branch. So, please stop by the Proponent office the next time you visit the Pentagon.
Jason Farmer, COL, U.S. Army (48J), DAMO-SSF Division Chief – FAO Proponent, HQDA, DCS G-3/5/7, Strategic Development and Initiatives, Jason.c.farmer.mil@army.mil
For members only – click here to access the FAO Proponent’s recent briefs to the field, which includes the updated AOC alignments and recent General Officer Steering Committee initiatives.
New Army FAO logos from HQDA G35
AFAOA Spouse membership and meet and greets
AFAOA desires to support our Army FAO spouses in any way shape or form that we can. We are beginning to create spouse events, webpages, and information portals to assist our spouses in finding out more about life as an Army FAO spouse. We began this by hosting our first FAO Spouse Meet & Greet in January via Zoom and will continue to host these quarterly. If your spouse desires to hear about these events please have them requister as a spouse membership, which is free, and fill out the information sheet. We promise not to release their information to anyone other than FAO spouses, or not at all if they click that box. We welcome anyone who would like to be our Spouse Committee Chair as well as other who desire to volunteer. In the future we hope to have country specific pages that will provide information on each assignment as well as POCs for spouses who have lived there before. Click here to join the association as a spouse member.
FAO and FA48 Pentagon Wall Displays
For those of you who work in the Pentagon you may not know that the HQDA G-35 recently created a Functional Area 48 and 59 display in the hallways of the Pentagon. Please see below for photos of the display.
There is also a larger display in the Pentagon which was created several years ago and sponsored by the Foreign Area Officers Association (FAOA). One of the walls of the original display had slots for awarding FAO of the Year awards. Unfortunately the Services and DLNSEO never filled the areas with awardees and the wall was always a complaint by FAOs. In the last year DLNSEO and the Service reps have updated the wall with FAO in action stories from all Services. Contact FAO Proponent if you desire to submit a new Army officer for this wall.
Joint Foreign Area Officer Course (JFAOC)
Army, Air Force, Marine, and Navy FAOs join together for the bi-anual Joint Foreign Area Officer Course (JFAOC) in February 2025 in the Weckerling Center, Defense Languge Institute, Monterey, California.
AFAOA Awards Colonel (Ret.) Dino Pick the Military Order of Lafayette Hall of Fame Award
During the most recent JFAOC the AFAOA President along with MG Harmon awarded COL (Ret.) Dino Pick the AFAOA Hall of Fame award.
MG Harmon awards COL (Ret.) Pick the AFAOA Hall of Fame award and medal
COL (Ret.) Pick and his family members attend the ceremony
Donate to place FAO items in the Weckerling Center, DLI, Monterey
The association has raised $1,000 so far in support of turning the Weckerling Center at DLI into a true FAO home. Our first initiative is dedicating the large conference room on the 1st floor (not the large hall) in honor of Colonel (Ret.) Sue Ann Sandusky, 48J. COL Sandusky was a legend in the 48J world and for all FAOs worldwide. Click here to donate to this initiative by 01 May 2025. The dedication of the room will occur at the next JFAOC in June 2025.
Congratulations to the Army’s newest Army FAO General
Army Colonel (Promotable) David M. Kobs for appointment to the grade of brigadier general. Kobs is currently serving as senior defense official and defense attaché, U.S. Defense Attaché Office, Egypt.
Stories from In-Region Training
IRT Builds Unique Institutional Knowledge for the DOD
LTC Aaron Smith
BLUF. IRT provides expertise the Department of Defense could not otherwise develop.
The Spark. From October to December 2021, the Tigray Defense Forces conducted a coordinated advance on the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, greatly expanding the scope of the 2020-2022 Tigray War. The advance threatened to transform an isolated intra-state conflict into an existential threat to the Ethiopian government and regional stability.
Why it Matters. Ethiopia is the second most populace country in Africa, the home of the African Union, a key provider of regional stability and home to tens-of-thousands of United States citizens. This last fact is of vital importance to the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) who stood up an operational planning team (OPT) to prepare for a potential non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) in Ethiopia’s northern and capital regions in the fall of 2021.
The Hole in the Swing. The OPT was assembled from staff officers responsible for various portfolios related to Africa. The team began a methodical analysis of the situation. They addressed questions such as where the American Citizens are, where the airports are located, what the runways are like at those airports, what languages are spoken in each of the regions, etc. There was one significant shortfall on the team. None of its members had ever set foot into Ethiopia. They were gathering information based upon the best available at the time. However, even in our modern connected world, there are significant gaps in available data to areas such as the Amara highlands and Tigray regions of Ethiopia.
The Answer. I had recently been assigned to USSOCOM to develop Special Operations relationships throughout the Middle East, enabled by the Abraham Accords. I became aware of the OPT when a team member, who knew I was a Sub-Saharan African specialist, asked me if I had any experience in Ethiopia. I met with the team and was able to answer the vast majority of their outstanding information gaps. Which airports could handle which planes based on their runway condition? I had landed at three of the four airports in question and could answer from experience. Which languages in which towns? I had traveled overland through the region and was able to identify the linguistic/cultural boundaries of the region.
How I Knew. I traveled northern Ethiopia in 2016 as part of my In Region Training (IRT). The IRT program is a year-long program designed to build cross-cultural competence through immersion. Participants gain a deep understanding of their region, local culture, and language, as well as experience living and working while assigned at a U.S. Embassy overseas. During IRT I traveled extensively both by air and overland to visit various locations in northern Ethiopia. I met with local people and heard their stories, their grievances, and their world views. While I did not appreciate the full importance of this knowledge at the time, I learned five years later that my experience was key to closing information gaps in a planning the evacuation of United States citizens from an active war zone. All be it, an evacuation that never happened.
About the Author: LTC Aaron Smith is a 48J currently assigned to the Commander’s Action Group, USSOCOM. Previous assignments include USSOCOM J5 XO, USSOCOM Iran Planner, Colorado School of Mines ROTC, and OSC Chief Chad & Central African Republic. He resides with his wife, Jodi, and three amazing children in Tampa, FL. Aaron and his family look forward to returning to Bless the Rains in the near future.
In Memoriam
This year we have lost two FAO greats…..
Tyrus Cobb, PhD, Col. U.S. Army (ret.) Obituary
Colonel Ty Cobb passed away at age 84 on Saturday December 7, 2024. Ty graduated from the University of Nevada in 1962. He attained a Masters degree from Indiana University and a PhD from Georgetown University in Soviet Studies. Ty served two combat tours in Vietnam, earning medals including the Purple Heart, and rose to the rank of Colonel over the course of his Army career. During his second tour in Vietnam he was part of the contingent tasked with flying into Hanoi to retrieve the remainder of the American POWs as part of the Paris Peace Treaty implementation. Ty also served as a Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan for National Security Affairs. Ty was fluent in Russian and was tasked to be the Executive Secretary for President Reagan’s summits with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva (1985) and Reykjavik (1986). In 1965, he married his college sweetheart, Suellen Small, in Venice, Italy. They returned to Europe multiple times in the 27 moves due to Ty’s 26 year military career. After his life of government service, he and Suellen returned to Reno in 2002 where Ty established the Nevada National Security Forum and was CEO of the Northern Nevada Network. He was appointed to be the Nevada Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army (CASA) in 2005 and in 2017 he was the recipient of the University of Nevada’s “Distinguished Nevadan” honor, just as his father had received before him.
To view in full please see his obituary at Legacy Remembers.
Sue Ann Sandusky, PhD, Col. U.S. Army (ret.) Obituary
Retired U.S. Army Colonel Sue Ann Sandusky, Ph.D., passed away peacefully on October 29 at the Willow Ridge nursing home in Bluffton. Sue was born January 20, 1952, in Houston, Texas. A world-class competitive shooter, Sue was a three-time All-American at Texas Christian University and was named TCU’s top female athlete of the 1970’s. Upon graduating, she was a member of the U.S. Army Reserve International Shooting Team winning multiple gold medals at the at the Championships of the Americas and the World Shooting Championships. Sue’s first tour of active duty from 1983 to 1987 was as the Assistant Professor of Political Science and Officer Representative for the Cadet Rifle Team at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. In 1997, she began a very highly decorated career as a Defense Attaché which spanned assignments to several U.S. embassies in Africa, providing war and crisis reporting from Liberia and Sierra Leone (1997-1998), Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Brazzaville (1998-2001), Cote d’Ivoire (2001-2004) and Nigeria (2004-2006). In a region of chronic unrest, she experienced military coups, civil wars and directly participated in five non-combatant evacuation operations. Defense Attache five times in Africa, Sue also served as the Director of African Studies at the U.S. Army War College, and in 2007, she became the first woman to be appointed Commandant of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, Monterey, California, During her career as an attaché, she received the National Exceptional Human Intelligence Collector Award from the Director of Central Intelligence (1998) and the Defense Intelligence Agency Director’s Award (2004), as well as numerous citations from the U.S. Department of State. She was inducted into the Defense Attaché Hall of Fame in 2008. She completed a Master of Philosophy degree in Political Science from Columbia University in 1982 and a Master of Strategic Studies degree from the U.S. Army War College in 2002. In 2020 she earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Higher Education Administration from Bowling Green State University.
To view in full please see her obituary at Crates Funeral and Cremation Services.
Save the dates
AFAOA Annual Meeting and AUSA Conference – 12 October 2025 at 1800hrs. Location TBD in the National Capitol Region, likley at the National Museum of the United States Army. Call out message to be released by 01 May 2025 with ticket purchases required by 01 September 2025
AFAOA Award Nominations for 2025 are due in June 1: Click here for the call out message for more information and the submission forms.
AFAOA Academic Journal: Horizons: Journal of the US Army Foreign Area Officer Association
This is a chance to offer political-military perspectives from the point of view of those who are or have served as FAO’s. It is also an opportunity to get published and share your knowledge with others who are focused on strategic and operational matters. We are looking for original articles by FAO’s past and present on topics of interest to political-military practitioners at the operational and strategic levels. These can address a variety of issues including but not limited to the future of the FAO Functional Area, regional affairs, perspectives as an attaché or security cooperation officer, historical pieces, FAO training and education, etc. The intent is for the articles to offer the in-depth analysis and evaluation that are the hallmark of FAO’s. Thus, they should go beyond what happened but also provide the context of why it matters and what the U.S. Government might do about it. Submit your articles for our inaugural edition of the AFAOA Journal via email to armyfaoassociation@gmail.com no later than 1 May 2025.
Army FAO Plaque at the National Museum of the United States Army
Thank you to all those who made a donation in the name of Army FAO HQDA G-35 DAMO-SSF! We raised over $5,000 for the Army museum. If you’d like to contribute please click here.
Calling for Volunteers
The association is always looking for volunteers. Currently we have openings in our Awards Chair and Newsletter Editor. If you desire to assist with the newsletter, awards committee, academic journal editing please email the association at armyfaoassociation@gmail.com
AFAOA Merchandise Store
Shop now at the AFAOA merchandise store – https://www.bonfire.com/store/army-foreign-area-officer-association
JOIN HERE – forward this to any Army FAO you know that hasn’t joined so far!!
Join here!! Army FAO Membership, Spouse Membership, or Corporate Sponsorship
AUSA members benefits
Did you know your membership with AFAOA also comes with the basic membership to AUSA? Look below for AUSA benefits.
AFAOA Board of Governors and Volunteers
President: Wes Chaney 48J, Vice President: Matt Kopp 48J, Secretary: Quintin Lee, 48E, Treasurer: Tim Brooks 48G (Ret.)
Newsletter Editor: Vacant, Asst. Editor: Jeremy Tomaino 48J, Asst. Editor: Jason Howk, 48D (Ret.)
Academic Editor: Scott Womack, 48J (Ret.), Asst. Editor: John Haseman 48I (Ret.)
Awards Chair: Vacant, Asst Awards Chair: Andrew Fisher 48E, Asst Awards Chair: David Frye 48E
Mentorship Chair: Tony Sebo 48E (Ret.), Asst Ment Chair: Adam Clements 48G (Ret.)
Social Chair: Christopher Post 48P, Podcast Contributor: Mike Hill 48B, Industry Representative: Tracy Roou 48E (Ret.), Website: Chris Singletary 48G
AFAOA is always looking for volunteers, especially in our awards, social, and editorial boards.