v \NCNa ~r%Ifgpf niCB Professional Military Education for Air Force Officers: Comments and Criticisms Editedby RICHARD L. DAVIS, LtCol, USAF FRANKP. DONNINI,LtCol, USAF AirUniversityPress MaxwellAirForceBase,Alabama June 1991 (cid:9) LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-PublicationData ProfessionalmilitaryeducationforAirForceofficers:commentsand criticisms/editedbyRichardL.Davis,FrankP.Donnini p.cm. Includesbibliographical references andindex. 1. United States. Air Force-Officers-Education. 2. Military education-UnitedStates.1.Davis,RichardL.,1947- .II.Donnini,FrankP. U0638.P76 1991 358.4'007'073-dc20 91-15110 CIP DISCLAIMER This publicationwas produced inthe Department ofDefense school environment inthe interestofacademic freedomandtheadvancementof nationaldefense-relatedconcepts.Theviewsexpressed inthis publication arethoseoftheeditorsanddonotreflecttheofficialpolicyorpositionofthe DepartmentofDefenseortheUnitedStatesgovernment. This publication has been reviewed by security and policy review authoritiesandisclearedforpublicrelease. ii To those who think THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Chapter Page DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix ABOUT THEEDITORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii 1 CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Inception Phase, 1946-50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Trans- and Post-KoreanWar Phase, 1950-57 . . . 3 Post-SputnikPhase, 1958-65 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Vietnam War Phase, 1965-74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Post-Vietnam War Phase, 1974-79 . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Defense ResurgencePhase, 1980-87 . . . . . . . . . . 9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2 EVOLUTION OFPROFESSIONAL MILITARY EDUCATION DOCTRINE FOR AIR FORCE OFFICERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Purpose ofAir Force Professional Military Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 OriginalIntent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Stated Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Broad versus Specialized Education . . . . . . . . 21 Air University's Professional Military Education Charter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Original Charter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Informal Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Changes inAir University Regulations . . . . . . 30 Chapter Page Defining Air University's Goals for ProfessionalMilitary Education . . . . . . . . . . 31 SchoolCurricula andMission Statements . . . . . . 35 AirWarCollege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 AirCommand andStaffCollege . . . . . . . . . . . 38 SquadronOfficer School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 3 COMMENTARYONAIR UNIVERSITY, 1946-87 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Commentary, 1946-67 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Faculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Curriculum, Educational Philosophy, andTeaching Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Student SelectionProcedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Commentary, 1968-87 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Faculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 NonresidentProfessional Military Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 TeachingMethods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Criticism ofCriticisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Board ofVisitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Air Force EducationalRequirements BoardTaskGroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Self-Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 (cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9)(cid:9) Chapter Page 4 REFLECTIONS ONPROFESSIONAL MILITARY EDUCATION FOR AIRFORCE OFFICERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Professional MilitaryEducation and Its Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 ProfessionalMilitary Education's Foundation: Defining theOfficer Corps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Professional MilitaryEducation Successes and Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119 Illustrations Table 1 Evolution ofAir War College Curricula . . . . . . . . . 36 2 Evolution ofAir Command and StaffCollege Curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 3 Evolution ofSquadronOfficerSchool Curricula . . . 42 Vii THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Foreword Professional military education (PME)hasplayedan important part inthe career development of US Air Force officerssincethe USAFbecameaseparate military servicein 1947.AlthoughPME is now well established andconsideredsuccessful, the system ha: drawn much criticism over the years. In an attempt to produce reference source for future evaluations ofPME, a special study team at Air University's Airpower Research Institute undertool an objective examination of the evolution of professions education inthe Air Force. Theirresearch, begun in 1987, range( overhundreds ofprimary documents andyieldedavast amounto: information, both historical and analytical. This book, edited b3 twomembers ofthe originalteam,is adistillationofmorethan4( years of PME appraisals that were unearthed bythe largerstudy. Such valuations-caustic as well as complimentary-an presented here inthe beliefthatthey are ultimatelybeneficial tc PME. Ifthe aim ofAir Force professionaleducationis toproduc( capable officers,thenitshouldbeflexibleenoughtoaccommodat( changes whichpursuethatgoal. Readersofthisbookwilldiscover that PME continues to serve the best interests of the Air Forc( because of-rather than in spite of-the steady gaze of critics Pvec