State Partnership Program Conference – Forging Ahead

We got off to a great start at the 2009 EUCOM State Partnership Program Conference. National Guard Bureau Chief, General McKinley, set the stage with his opening remarks about how SPP has matured over the past 15 years, but noted that we need to be "on a vector to make it better." That charge from the Chief opened the floor for some lively, honest and thought-provoking debate about how we at EUCOM, along with our 20 SPP TAGs (Adjutant Generals), and our Component Commands, can communicate and work better to improve the program. A take away for me and my staff is to find ways to bridge the communication gap between our TAGs and our Component Commands -- USAFE (United States Air Forces Europe) and USAREUR (United States Army Europe). The State Partnership Program is a tool of the EUCOM Commander's Theater Security Cooperation plan. It can and should be a multiplier for the component commands as well. We haven't done a great job making that happen. We're going to fix that.

One theme I heard repeated throughout the day focused on our Bilateral Affairs Officer program, a program at the heart of SPPs success, yet it's not fully funded. The BAOs are "boots on ground" everyday in our partner countries, fostering relationships and identifying ways to build our partner capacity. Currently, the majority of our BAOs serve one-year tours of duty, without their families, at the US Embassy of their partner country. The NGB Chief and the TAGs all agree our BAOs need at least two-years on station to successfully foster critical partner country relationships. One of our goals is to get BAOs established as a funded program of record. Lots of work ahead on that.

We kick off today with a full agenda ahead of us. We will start with an update from USAFE. Before the day is over, we will cover a wide range of topics to include Humanitarian Engagement Support, Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams, and Maritime Port Security.

Please continue to check out our Blog posts and follow #SPP on Twitter for the day's discussions.

BG Jeffery Marshall
Director, EUCOM Directorate of Mobilization and Reserve Affairs