Professional Military Education for Air Force - The Air University

138 Pages·2003·6.23 MB·English

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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
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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
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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