This thread got me wondering. Suppose you’re in the military, how do you get assigned to an embassy? I expect there are very different answers for enlisted and officers, but please eliminate my ignorance.
I’m pretty sure it helps if you’re in the Marines, but that’s all I know about it.
Marine Security Guard (8152) is a secondary MOS. You have to be a Lance Corporal or above to apply for the billet, but you can apply from any primary MOS.
It is also not unusual for a Navy Corpsman to be assigned to embassy duty, many embassies have some sort of medical clinic, and a corpsman is easier and cheaper to post than a nurse. There is almost always a corpsman assigned if there are a large number of marines assigned to the embassy, and also if there is a medical research project hosted there.
The Navy medical establishment is responsible for all overseas embassies, consulates, etc., along with medicine for Congress and the White House. Even if the president has a personal physician, he is assigned a Navy physician for overall case management and paperwork.
I met and worked with Reagan’s Navy physician back in 1986 – I’ve got a letter from him somewhere around here, on White House stationary. I’ve also worked with several corpsmen and a physician who were assigned to embassies.
Embassies are supported by all branches of the military: the Army signal corps is responsible for communications, the Air Force for transportation, the Marines for security, and the Navy for medicine.
The Navy Seabees are also chosen for duty in many embassies. The billets are usually for E-6/E-7 and they are utilized for building maintenance: plumbing, electrical, structural, etc. They require top security clearances and, even though they are senior NCO’s, they will not be in supervisory positions, but will be doing the work themselves.
There are Military Officers at Embassies in-country in the U.S. Defense Attache Offices (DAO) and Security Assistance Offices (SAO).
As to HOW TO from here Quote
- Although attaches and security assistance officers are drawn from the same candidate pool of Foreign Area Officers (FAO) and other qualified personnel, only the U.S. Army has created a career track to select, train, develop, and promote officers to serve as both military attaches and security assistance personnel. The Army primarily chooses attaches and security assistance officers from within its FAO program, with some SAO personnel coming from the acquisitions and logistics career fields. Air Force selections for attaché and security assistance assignments are made directly by AFPC assignment specialists. Attache nominees are confirmed by the Air Staff International Airmen Division, but are not dependent upon the individual having the FAO specialty (1). Within the Navy, ALUSNAs are selected by the Office of Naval Intelligence, usually from naval warfare career fields and not intelligence, and security assistance personnel are assigned by Navy “detailers.” Although desired, nominees are not required to have the Navy FAO designation. The U.S. Marine Corps also maintains a small cadre of FAOs.
Security assistance personnel are trained at a 3-week course at the Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management (DISAM) at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio. All military attaches are prepared at a 12-week course taught at DIA’s Joint Military Attache School (JMAS) in Washington DC, and some also attend DISAM if performing security assistance duties. Although focusing on their respective areas of expertise, both courses have as an objective to train military personnel as U.S. representatives abroad and to work in an embassy environment.*
Navy Cryptologic Technicians handle the secure (encrypted) communications. Army and Air Force equivalents may also share those duties – I dunno for sure.
This is not quite correct. Seabees assigned to the Dept. of State are attached to Diplomatic Security. As such, their duties are to install alarm systems, locks, safes, etc. and assist security engineers in sweeping embassies (electronic counter-intelligence). Embassies have their own local workforces that take care of maintenance tasks.
Embassies also have what are called “military attaches”, which are generally intelligence officers from DIS. There are some enlisted staff who perform admin functions for them.
In all of the embassies I visited (and it was many) I never saw or heard of a Navy Corpsman being assigned there. Perhaps that has changed.
To answer your question (for the Seabees, anyway), there are a finite number of billets for this type duty. It’s considered special duty, and they try to pick top performers who can work well on their own. Basically, one picks up the phone and talks to his/her detailer (assignments person) in Washington and tries to shmooze him/her into considering one for this duty. In my case, I personally knew the detailer AND the person in charge of Naval Support Unit State Dept., so the way was somewhat paved.
Initially, once accepted and having gone through training (security, locksmithing, etc.), you take TDY assignments at whatever embassy may need you, often as part of a team installing security systems or other construction work in core (high security) areas of that facility. After about a year of running around the world doing that sort of thing, you are posted (assigned to) an embassy or consulate somewhere in the world for a couple of years. This can either be a one-person assignment, or you can be part of a regional team, such as was the case in Frankfurt, Athens and Casablanca. Regional teams tend to travel a lot to other embassies and consulates doing all sorts of security-related work.
It’s popular duty because you wear civilian clothes and can score some extra income from per diem. Also, I got to see places and things I would never have seen otherwise.
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