Miscellaneous bills, hearings, acts of the Congress, and other historical items pertaining to the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School 1947-1957, assembled by the Library of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, 1958

Abstract

Major changes in the advanced education of officers have always occurred following a wartime period. In the post-Vietnam period 1 change can again be anticipated and educational policy should be reviewed . The overall objective of Navy postgraduate education is to provide an efficient springboard for the continued professional development of career officers. This objective is broken down in the FY 1974 DOD Military Manpower Training Report in terms of five specific military needs: (1) The need to fill specified billets in which graduate education is essential for optimum performance of duty. (2) The need for a well-educated pool of manpower from which to select leaders and policy makers of the future. (3) The need to sustain morale and job satisfaction -- many officers seek personal fulfillment through higher education and its application in their work . (4) The need for satisfactory career progression -- in the all-volunteer force environment of the future 1 the military must attract prospective officers who see industry and government organizations providing advanced educational opportunities for their employees. (5) The need for military officers to keep abreast of developments in the civilian sector -- the military officer cannot function insulated and divorced from the civilian society. The current postgraduate education system has been developed in keeping with res policy issued in 1964 1 and is addressed primarily to the first of these five needs. The subspecialty areas defined in OpNav Instruction 1211.6D of January 1973 1 the related nineteen career management communities under OTMS, and educational programs in the traditional academic disciplines have all been carefully refined and matched over the last decade by OpNav and BuPers to define requirements and gain efficient utilization of both URL subspecialist and restricted duty officers. The Navy's Postgraduate education system has been a clear success I both in terms of numbers and of recognition by the promotion system. During the years 1964-1972 I the fraction of URL officers in the grade of LCDR and above with postgraduate education has increased from 24% to 38% 1 and the fraction of Flag officers so educated has increased from 33% to 52%. If restricted duty* officers are included in the count, these numbers become 29% to 44%, and 40% to 56% respectively. Yet with all the effort given by the Navy, this system has not worked to reflect high utilization. In a recent study, 36% of all URL subspecialist officers had never served in a related billet, and only 48% of the validated subspecialist billets were manned by officers with a related subspecialty. The discrepancy between actually having a highly educated URL officer corps and the apparent utilization of their education when measured by specified disciplines in pre- determined billets speaks for itself despite a decade where the subspecialty system has been emphasized.