Major Jonathan Swoyer is an Army Foreign Area Officer (FAO) focused on South Asia and holds the unofficial record for having spent more time in Nepal than any other U.S. Army officer. He graduated from the Nepali Army Command and Staff College in Shivapuri, Nepal, then transitioned to working at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu as the Security Cooperation Chief in the Office of Defense Cooperation. He is a prior enlisted Signals Intelligence linguist who speaks five languages. Jon has 46 months of combat operations experience in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, as a former Ordinance and Psychological Operations Officer. In this episode, Jon talks about his decision to join the Army at the age of 19, why he chose to leave the enlisted world and become an officer, how he uses his knowledge of language to better understand culture and context, as well as his hopes and fears of starting the next chapter of his life as he prepares for retirement.