Leaderboard

You mean there was a time before "Every officer needs a Master's and PME in addition to conduction the actual mission of our service." ? That's crazy talk, like strippers at the O' Club and flying under bridges. I think you older guys make this stuff up..... Not really. But I am jealous. Except of the guys who didn't do PME and didn't get an MBA because of the aforementioned policy and then got screwed down the line.

1946... 1950-something... 1918... 1866... wash, rinse, repeat.

Then they would only have 64 cannon balls.

I've done PME inres every level (except ASBC not around for an old fart like me). SOS was a waste, but that is because I was from an Ops background. I think the non-ops folks actually learned something about the Air Force, most did not know the types of airplanes we flew. IDE was unfun...there were parts that had promise and I took a little time to understand the bigger picture in relation to political theories such as realism and liberalism. Beyond that, it was mostly a waste, but again because I came from an ops background. ASG was simply the best academic experience I've ever had. Very small student body, world class instructors, heavy academic load (read 273 books in one year). We spend five days walking the beaches at Normandy with PhDs who had written their thesis about the landing and eventual breakout. We walked Belleau Wood with a young Frenchman who has adopted the battlefield and truly loves Americans and the fact that they came to save France...twice. We walked the beaches of the southern landings with another PhD who wrote THE book about that operation. We traveled to Vietnam and walked the battlefield of Khe Sahn, stood behind the wall in Hue City where LtGen Christmas won the Navy Cross...with LtGen Christmas, and I stood on the Paul Doumer Bridge...looked up and took a minute to wonder what it was like when my old man rolled in on the bridge in an F-4 with iron bombs, winning one of his won one of five DFCs. SDE (not AWC), was a scratch because the leadership was so so...tough to revert to student mode and present a note for a doctors appt when your last assignment was as a Sq/CC. That being said, the access was unreal. We met personally with every service chief and got the chance to pick their brain. We spent time with SECDEF, a Supreme Court Justice, CJCS, Gen Pace, Gen Patraeus, Gen Zinni, and former President Bush (43). Tom Ricks is an idiot, but beyond that he does not realize what INRES PME offers that you would never get at a civilian institution, the opportunity to work with the other services and pick their brains. My SDE calls had several graduated Battalion CC's that were just coming out (sts), of AFG and Iraq, their insights were invaluable. The curriculum is dry at times, but it does focus on aspects of the DIME that you would never get at a civilian institution. Harvard, Yale, and Stanford all have outstanding programs and yes some military officers would benefit, but we do need a cadre of officers that understands the military system. I am not saying the current system is perfect, but there is value.