The Foreign Service Journal, March 2007

details about just what kinds of professionals are needed for the new positions have been spelled out, that number has dropped to about 11 officers. Most of the new teammembers will be specialists from outside the Foreign Service. They will be oil engineers, city planners, medical professionals, agricultural special- ists, veterinarians and industry experts, among others. State is even floating the idea of hiring non-Americans for some of the specialist positions. Providing security for each new specialist is extremely costly, and one reason non-Americans may be considered is that they may be able to do the job without being as visible a target and thus would require less protection. Most of the new PRTs will be embedded with Brigade Combat Teams. These will be smaller teams than the existing PRTs, and they will probably have a shorter-term mission than the existing PRTs. “It’s important to be clear that the numbers and the skill sets are the result of a ground-up review by existing PRTs,” explains Stephenson. “The teams were asked to take a look at their province and take into account Iraqi capacity to absorb the assistance. What skill sets did they need on their teams in order to make the biggest differ- ence? So this won’t come as a surprise to the PRTs; they actually generated it. And, of course, you couldn’t have done that kind of specialized, individualized, tailored look until you had existing PRTs, and they got to know their provinces well enough to say this is what would make a difference here.” The Iraq Service Recogni- tion Package offers significant bene- fits to State Department PRT vol- unteers, including 35-percent dan- ger pay plus 35-percent post differ- ential. Regional rest breaks are offered several times during a one- year assignment. PRT volunteers receive an extra boost, “enhanced possibility for promotion for cred- itable and exemplary service.” Perhaps the most significant benefit for PRT volunteers only is guaran- teed assignment to “one of the employee’s top five choices for onward assignment, as long as these jobs are at-grade and in-cone or in- specialty and do not require a language waiver.” USAID, which has its own, similar benefits package, also offers PRT volunteers a top-five choice for onward assignment. As for filling the new PRT positions, as well as finding replacements for the FS members already serving their one-year tours in PRTs, Stephenson explains that “our fill rate is high.” Current FSO positions in PRTs are 98-per- cent filled, she says. She noted that there were more qual- ified bidders for the PRT team leader positions than posi- tions open during the last bidding cycle. For the summer 2007 bidding cycle (still ongoing as we go to press), she says the positions were 87 percent filled by early February. Concerns Persist Despite this optimistic view of staffing, there is con- cern among FS members that the demands for staffing Iraq — the PRTs plus Embassy Baghdad — could lead to a shortage of people to fill the jobs. There is already a sig- nificant worldwide deficit of mid-level (FS-2) generalists that will only be exacerbated if many more positions are established in the PRTs. But for now at least, State man- agement does not have plans to direct anyone to serve in a PRT. Other concerns, from inside and outside the Foreign Service, are that not all FS members who do volunteer for F O C U S 36 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 7 Mosul, Ninawa Province.