Creating a new path for joint education - joint professional military education

Joint Force Quarterly, Spring, 2002 by Robert M. Antis, Claudia H. Clark

A Spectrum of Joint Education

This article proposes integrating current joint education with new capabilities. Only by linking existing resources to innovative initiatives can DOD meet this wide-ranging shortfall. The JPME Phase II institution of the National Defense University, Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC), must serve as the focal point. As the school Congress chartered to address joint specialty officer needs, its success is unquestioned. As the school that educates the largest portion of staff officers being assigned to the combatant commanders, it must serve as the cornerstone of this initiative. Shelton pointed out that although its seats are not routinely filled, many individuals are still unable to attend. More importantly, an even greater number have no need for such extensive education yet still require some level of preparation. But in the current structure there is no alternative for them.

The Skelton Report speaks of a spectrum of joint education spanning the pre-commissioning programs of the Reserve Officer Training Corps and service academies to senior service colleges, National War College, and Capstone. This spectrum should be deepened and integrated. Congress had the right concept when suggesting that joint education was necessary throughout an officer's career. What was not so apparent was the range of personnel who require some portion of that instruction. Joint education included in the service intermediate schools is designated Phase I JPME. It should in and of itself provide the foundation for many officers supporting the combatant commanders on component or joint task force staffs. Additionally, to that educational spectrum outlined for selected officers' careers we must now add opportunities for those enlisted personnel, civilians, and Reservists of all grades, as well as officers who might need more preparation than would normally be forecast by a career pattern Goldwater-Nichols projected for non-joint specialty officers. We will now examine this new spectrum.

While Congress and OPMEP provide detailed directives, an integrated education program must have a flagship institution for curriculum development with the teaching expertise and assessment skills to make a joint education program viable. One institution must provide the core curriculum for CJCS to ensure that this greater variety of education and training is focused on appropriate topics. The obvious choice is Joint Forces Staff College. As a JPME Phase II institution, it prepares officers for the joint specialty with a joint curriculum along with a faculty and students equally representing all military departments. OPMEP has further defined the student allocation as according with the distribution of billets by service on the joint duty assignment list. Only through this mix sharing an educational experience over time can students achieve the level of acculturation Congress desires and that is needed for joint specialty officers. An examination of the program therefore demonstrates the necessary background for a comprehensive plan and shows the potential of existing material to underpin the other elements of the educational spectrum proposed here.