Educating tomorrow's leaders today : a comparison of the officer development programs of the United States Naval Academy and the United States Air Force Academy

Abstract

prominent military and civilian leaders. While their missions are similar, there are differences in the approach each Academy undertakes to achieve this endstate. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and evaluate how officer development is applied at the respective service academies, what similarities and differences exist, what the respective strengths and weaknesses of each program are, and to discuss the future developments of the officer development programs. Chapter I provides an introduction including the background, methodology, and organization of this thesis. Chapter II examines the core values, missions, and visions of the two service academies. Chapter III compares current leadership theory to the concept of the military as a profession as introduced by Samuel Huntington (1957) and James Burk (2002). Chapter IV describes the leadership/management/ethics courses and the character development programs in place at the two service academies. Chapter V discusses the methods and procedures used during the research phase of this thesis. Chapter VI reveals the themes present from the data collected and Chapter VII presents the conclusions, recommendations, and areas for future research.