Lieutenant Colonel Shirley Rapues, USA (Defense Language Office)

Lieutenant Colonel Shirley T. Rapues is the Associate Director for the Department of Defense Foreign Area Officer (FAO) Program in the Defense Language Office under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (USD(P&R)). As the DoD FAO Program Manager, she provides oversight and support to the Service FAO Programs and advises the USD(P&R) on the Joint FAO Program. Prior to assuming her current duties in 2007, LTC Rapues served in various FAO assignments. Immediately after completing her FAO in-country training in Japan, she was the Bilateral Exchange Program Manager for U.S. Army – Japan (USARJ), coordinating and implementing bilateral activities between USARJ and the Japan Ground-Self Defense Force. LTC Rapues also served as the Northeast Asia analyst in the Joint Staff J-2 providing intelligence support on key regional issues in Northeast Asia. LTC Rapues’ next assignment was at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Directorate for Human Intelligence as a Support Operations Officer. While assigned to DIA, she deployed to Afghanistan as the Executive Officer for an intelligence collection platform. LTC Rapues is a Northeast Asia FAO and completed basic language training at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) for Japanese and Portuguese. She also graduated from the advanced Japanese language training at the Foreign Service Institute in Yokohama, Japan. Besides Japanese and Portuguese, LTC Rapues is fluent in Tagalog and Spanish. She is a graduate of the Joint Forces Staff College and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. LTC Rapues has a BA degree in Elementary Education from the University of Hawaii – Manoa and an MS degree in International Relations from Troy State University. Her awards, decorations and badges include: Bronze Star Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (Second Oak Leaf Cluster), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal (Third Oak Leaf Cluster), Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, Joint Staff officer badge, and the parachutist badge.