Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: morgan@ms.uky.edu (Wes Morgan) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: The Value of a Military Education Message-ID: <14466@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 5 Mar 90 02:24:01 GMT References: <14399@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: The Puzzle Palace, UKentucky Lines: 58 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Wes Morgan >From: >My question is: is a military education a valuable thing? Would such an >education make a person well-qualified to, say, run a restaurant or a >hardware store? Or would a military education be a slow and inefficient >way to learn skills which could better be learned in some other way? > Certain phases of military education are superb. For instance, the standard text on military leadership concentrates on case studies; I would recommend this manual to any- one preparing to enter a leadership position of any sort. Many firms base their operations on a staff structure similar to that of a mili- tary unit. The major division of a military staff are Personnel, In- telligence, Planning/Operations, and Supply. Replace "Intelligence" with "Research and Development", and you have most corporate structures in a nutshell. Given this fact, the Army's texts on staff support and organization can be invaluable in the "real world". Consider, too, the Army IPD courses. These are correspondence courses available to any soldier. The Individual Leadership Development Course, for example, consists of modules such as: Effective Written Communication Conducting Effective Meetings Effective Oral Communication Personal Leadership and several others. Again, I would highly recommend these texts to any- one preparing to assume a leadership or management role in their firm. >And even if it is a good form of education, what are its principal >weaknesses? I am assuming that by "military education", we are referring to the service academies or military schools, such as The Citadel. I think that the discipline instilled by these schools is every bit as important in the 'real world' as the leadership and management skills described above. I've worked with many West Pointers during my military career, and the only serious flaw I've seen is in their dealings with subordinates. Many West Pointers come into active duty with the attitude that they are the 'cream of the crop'; why do you think they're called ringknockers? Thankfully, almost all of them drop this attitude, with a little help from their first savvy platoon sergeant. 8) Should you have the opportunity to hire someone with a military education, I would jump at the chance..........look at it this way; they've had the chance to iron out their bugs while on active duty! Wes Morgan -- The opinions expressed above are not those of UKECC unless so noted. Wes Morgan \ {rutgers,rayssd,uunet}!ukma!ukecc!morgan University of Kentucky \ or morgan@engr.uky.edu Engineering Computing Center \ or morgan%engr.uky.edu@UKMA.BITNET