In a milestone for the U.S. Army, it has promoted a senior noncommissioned officer directly to captain in the foreign area officer field for the first time, the service said Wednesday.
The unusual move allowed Jeremy Chambers, formerly a master sergeant, to commission in a Hawaii ceremony in early December after senior leaders said he had been performing duties commensurate with an FAO role for years and deserved the rank to match.
FAOs are regional specialists, whose work often requires cultural, linguistic and geopolitical expertise. Entry into the program is extremely competitive.
The Army said Chambers will begin rigorous academic, cultural and language training to prepare for future roles that could range from embassy placements to advising senior leaders about international-level strategy.
The seeds for Chambers’ commission were planted when Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, who now leads the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, saw that the then-noncommissioned officer was assisting with tasks normally expected of an FAO, the Army said.
“We all know that the promotion comes from the determination by senior leaders who individually possess the potential for increased responsibility,” Gen. Ronald Clark, head of U.S. Army Pacific, said at the ceremony.
“I have to give credit to the number of senior leaders at this headquarters who have gone to other assignments or are in retirement, who have shaped this action, which took many years to develop. It started with Lt. Gen. John Braga, who had the tremendous idea to commission Jeremy as an officer,” he said.
Chambers said in the release that he hoped this new pathway to becoming an officer would inspire other soldiers.
“My hope with this entire direct commission was to help create a legacy and a pathway for other NCOs. Still, it is more important now that we’ve created an opportunity for other NCOs, other enlisted soldiers, to recognize that there’s another thing they can do,” he said in the release.
The release did not say whether the pathway would become standard practice or open to other noncommissioned officers.
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
