Air University Review, January-February 1985
I AGREE with Major John W. Fal that most Air Force officers should have a thorough knowledge of air power doctrine, and I share his concern over the fact that this is not the case. However, our professional military education (PME) program is not entirely responsible for the problem he describes. In my opinion, PME does a good job of laying the foundation for an officer's continued professional development, and this is essentially the function of an educational system. A special feature of Air Force PME is that it provides different phases of study, each tailored to meet the special needs of officers at three critical points in their careers: company grade, field grade, and senior field grade service. But PME merely lays the foundation for continuing professional development that must also include an individual, personal study program. Thus, professional development involves both formal, academic training and individual study that should take place throughout an officer's career.
The formal process begins with Squadron Officer School (SOS), an intense course of study that lasts eight and a half weeks. More than fifty-five hours of the SOS curriculum are allocated for the study of force employment and doctrine-related issues. The concepts presented in the lectures, seminars, and readings that comprise this portion of the curriculum are reinforced as students participate in wargaming exercises that demand a thorough knowledge of how we fight.
The formal schooling begun at SOS is continued at the Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) and the Air War College (AWC), both of which offer courses of study approximately ten-months long that go even deeper into the study of doctrinal issues. Each of these schools designates approximately 350 curriculum hours for the detailed study of military history and military doctrines, including those of our sister services, our allies, and our adversaries, as well as our own. Officers at both ACSC and AWC also gain practical experience by applying their knowledge of strategy and doctrines in computer-assisted war games.
Once an officer has received a basic professional education through resident, seminar, or correspondence PME programs, it is up to that individual to expand and deepen his or her knowledge of the principles and doctrines that must guide the use of air power. In this respect, our situation as officers very much parallels that of physicians, lawyers, and other professionals: we have a personal responsibility to stay abreast of developments in our profession through self-study. Just as it is inconceivable that a surgeon would never read a medical journal after completing his or her formal study of medicine, it should be impossible to think of an Air Force officer who never reads a professional journal and other pertinent literature beyond that required in formal PME courses.
Each of us has a professional obligation to follow debates of key defense issues in professional journals, such as Marine Corps Gazette, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Parameters, Military Review, Naval War College Review, and our own Air University Review. Furthermore, we should not shy away from writing down our own ideas on these issues and submitting them for publication. There is no better way to sharpen one's own views than to prepare a coherent, written version of them.
The importance of a personal study program is illustrated by an episode recounted in Edgar Puryear's Nineteen Stars. In December 1941, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was assigned to the War Plans Division. Upon reporting to General George C. Marshall for his first task, Eisenhower was given a brief outline of the situation in the Western Pacific and asked, "What should be our general line of action?" Eisenhower asked for a desk and a few hours. Puryear tells us of this occasion:
Though he spent several hours on his answer, it was really a matter of organizing his thoughts. Years had gone into the preparation of his answer––the countless hours of study in the service schools he had attended; the training furnished by his many and varied assignments.... [and] the informal studying he did on his own time; ––all of this went into his answer. He reached his conclusions and took them back to General Marshall. The answer must have been what Marshall was looking for; he said to Ike, "I agree with you," and Ike said to himself, "His tone implied that I had been given the problem as a check to an answer he had already reached."
Puryear notes that General Eisenhower went on to command the largest aggregation of forces in the history of the world and that his informal professional study program was a key factor in his achieving that position. We might all do well to spend more of our leisure time in a personal study program designed to enhance our knowledge of pertinent issues, including air power doctrine.
Maxwell AFB, Alabama
Captain Dieter Barnes (B.A., San Francisco State University; M.A., Louisiana Tech University) is a student at Air Command and Staff College. He has served as a B-52 instructor navigator, a radar navigator, a Squadron Officer School faculty member, and an action officer at Hq Air University.
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.
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