United States Marine Corps Special Operations Officer Intermediate and Graduate Level Professional Military Education

Abstract

Military services are responsible for the professional development of its total force. Curricula within the military services' professional military education (PME) programs focus on training officers across a broad, generalized spectrum relevant to the respective service's doctrine while achieving joint PME Phase-I (JPME-I) accreditation. Although SOF-specific ILE exists, the opportunity for Special Operations Officers (SOO) attendance is severely limited. Some argue that current service PME program models adequately prepare all officers for post ILE assignment within the Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, Multinational (JIIM) environment and that special operations forces (SOF) are no different than any other military occupational specialty (MOS) so they do not require specifically specialized ILE. Others argue that SOF require specific education that SOCOM should provide in accordance with Title 10 responsibilities to conduct specialized courses of instruction for commissioned officers. Regardless of opinions toward SOF ILE, this study will examine if current service schools are meeting SOO needs for SOF education, and if not, are there feasible alternatives or options that could improve the education of a SOO while achieving the same qualifications as the services' resident PME school? Furthermore, this study intends to identify the correct mix of professional development and operational education of a field grade officer competing PME. Although comparison occurs between Special Operations Officer, Special Forces Officers, and Navy SEAL Officers, this study does not intend to conduct a direct comparison between service SOF due to the distinct difference in force sizes and the relative infancy of Marine Special Operations Command in comparison to sister-service SOF.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 08, 2017
Accession Number
AD1176481

Entities

People

  • Joseph E. Jr Clemmy

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Business Administration
  • Department Of Defense
  • Distance Learning
  • Doctrine
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Information Operations
  • Information Science
  • International Security
  • Marine Corps
  • Military Education
  • Military Force Levels
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Special Operations Forces
  • Students
  • Task Forces
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States Special Operations Command
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Education

Readers

  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military Leadership and Professional Education.