Report Of The Panel On Military Education Of The One Hundredth Congress Of The Committee On Armed Services House Of Representatives

This document reports the oral and written statements of persons who testified at congressional hearings on the subject of professional military education. Witnesses included members of Congress, active and reserve military officers from various branches of the armed services, and supervisors of the services' military colleges. Testimony, presented by Paul L. Jones, Director of Defense Force Issues at the U.S. General Accounting Office, indicated that the military's professional schools had responded favorably in implementing previously made recommendations of a Congressional panel concerning phase 1 of joint professional military education. Other witnesses addressed questions about lines of promotions for officers, the need for more officers, student qualifications for admittance to the schools and for promotion, curriculum reform, and school requirements. (KC)

Professional Military Education (PME) is broader and more rigorous than is widely understood in the United States. Improving educational programs within the military service branches is at the very center of ongoing force transformation efforts and advanced educational opportunities occur at various, set levels of military experience. Military education increasingly conforms to standards imposed by outside civilian accrediting bodies and is mandated and monitored, to an extent, by Congress. Military Educationexplores this often-overlooked area of education within the context of the modern military force structure. In this unique work, Watson chronicles the evolution of professional military education during the last sixty years. Careful to draw distinctions between training and education, she briefly traces the history of PME and examines some of the major personalities involved in shaping it, as well as the evolution of the curriculum stressed in PME programs. Her narrative, combined with key documents, a glossary, and a timeline of important events, dispels popular notions of an uneducated military force.