Functional Area 59

Overview
Officers in FA59 serve in Army and joint organizations and staffs; within DOD-level organizations and agencies; and within the interagency. Officers coordinate extensively with national, international, non-governmental, and academic organizations to develop and implement concepts for the strategic employment of national capabilities.
All FA59 assignments are considered key developmental billets, and there are no formal career tracks. Army strategists operate at all echelons and across the operating and generating forces over their course of service to the nation. Through a variety of strategy related staff assignments throughout DOD, FA59 officers become well-versed in both plans and policy. Further, FA59 officers provide stability and continuity to the commands they support because they typically serve three year stabilized assignments.
Functions
Army Strategists are soldiers who are experts at leading multi-disciplinary groups in the application of strategic art to develop and articulate strategy at the national and theater strategic levels.
- Lead multi-disciplinary groups in assessing, envisioning, developing, articulating, and evaluating strategy at national and theater level.
- Integrate all elements of national power in design and implementation.
- Advise senior decision-makers on policy and resource options and implications of, and risks associated with, those strategic choices.
- Design and promulgate concepts for application of strategic and operational art and educate others in the theory and basis for their use.
- Integrate national and theater strategic considerations with institutional strategies to ensure balance between objectives and resources.
- Organize and lead multi-disciplinary planning groups in application of operational art to design and implement theater campaign plans.
Assignment Types
The career field offers junior officers assignment to echelons often reserved to members of a much higher rank in other branches. All assignments within FA59 are key developmental billets, so officers do not have to “race on the treadmill” seeking select jobs required for promotion. In fact, FA59 encourages officers to remain in their assignments for three years in order to provide continuity and perspective to the commands they support. FA59 officers become experts at operating in high-level staffs much earlier in their careers than other branches.
FA59 officers in the operating force provide strategic analysis and planning support for the development and implementation of plans and policies implemented at the national strategic and theater strategic levels. Officers serving in the generating force conduct wide-ranging planning and synchronization that directly support the Title 10 United States Code responsibilities of the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense.
Billet Locations
Divisions, Corps, Theater Armies. Army strategists concentrate on operational planning and operational assessment at the theater army and division levels. In most cases, junior majors will serve at division, senior majors will serve at corps, and majors and lieutenant colonels will serve at the theater army levels.
Joint Headquarters. Army strategists also concentrate on operational planning and operational assessment at the component command or joint task force levels. In addition to planning functions, officers serving within these commands facilitate interagency and joint coordination. For long-standing headquarters, senior FA59 majors and lieutenant colonels with previous operational experience provide support.
Regional Combatant Commands and Unified Commands. FA59 officers serving at joint and unified commands formulate and implement theater strategies, plans, and policies specific to their commands' areas of responsibility. Officers assigned to these commands possess operational and joint experience gained from previous assignments as FA59s. Strategists assigned to regional combatant commands are well-rounded and highly qualified strategists who usually possess higher educational degrees with international policy; history; language; or regional specialties.
Generating Force.
Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs, or Army Staffs. FA59 officers assigned to the staffs directly support Title 10 United States Code responsibilities across the Department of Defense. FA59s link ends, ways, means, and risk across these institutions to generate long-term policies and capabilities in support of regional combatant commanders and national strategy.
Army Commands. Army strategists provide a wide variety of planning and execution support to most Army Commands. Army strategists serve as doctrine developers, educators, analysts, programmers, and senior aides in support of Title 10 United States Code responsibilities.

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