The Foreign Area Officer Podcast

#4 - MAJ Neil Law

MAJ Neil Law is a native of Queens, New York, Neil currently serves as a U.S. Army foreign area officer in Port-au-Prince Haiti. He received his commission as a transportation officer from SUNY Albany, and completed two deployments to Afghanistan before assessing into the FAO career field and completing in-region training in Mexico City. He is fluent in Chinese Mandarin, Chinese Cantonese and Spanish. 

#3 - LTCs Alex and Emma Schade

Emma Shade is a U. S. Army Signal Officer from Georgia. She currently serves as Desk Officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency covering Sub Saharan Africa. Emma speaks French and Arabic, which she used in her assignments in N'Djamena Chad as the Chief of the Office of Security Cooperation and at SETAF-AF in Vicenza, Italy as the Sub Saharan Africa Desk Officer. She completed her IRT at the U. S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  
Alex Shade is from Ridgewood, New Jersey. A graduate of the Citadel Military College, he commissioned as a U.S. Army Armor Officer, where he served for two years before transitioning to Military Intelligence.  An Arabic and German speaker, he currently serves on the Joint Staff J5 on the Israel Desk. Previous assignments include Army Attaché in N'Djamena, Chad, including nine months as Acting SDO/DATT, North Africa Desk Officer at SETAF-AF in Vicenza, Italy, and he completed his IRT at U. S. Embassy in Rabat, Morocco. 

#2 - MAJ Matt and Dr. Madi Saunders

MAJ Matt Saunders is an infantry officer at Latin America. Pharaoh currently earning his master's degree at the Harvard Kennedy school of government.  He is a Spanish speaker and completed his IRT at us embassy, Mexico city. 
 Dr. Madison Saunders is a practicing clinical audiologist. She earned her bachelor's of arts in communication, sciences, and disorders from LSU in 2012. And her doctorate of audiology from the university of Kansas medical center in 2017. 

#1 - LTC Wes Chaney

Lieutenant Colonel Wes Chaney is an infantry officer who currently serves as the Director for CENTCOM Regional Operations at the United States Army Security Assistance Command.  In previous assignments has served as the Foreign Area Officer Branch Chief, SDO/DATT in Côte d’Ivoire and in Djibouti as the Chief of the Security Cooperation Office.  He also served assignments at the Army G-3/5/7 and in the U.S. Army’s Africa and Southern European Task force.  Lieutenant Colonel Chaney is married and is the proud father of two children.