Required PME for Promotion to Captain in the Infantry
Abstract
As it has been for the past few thousand years, the battlefield is becoming increasingly dispersed. In the current operating environment, junior officers, lieutenants and captains, are being called upon to make decisions more than they ever have in history. At the same time, the immediacy of global communications is lending an ever-greater strategic impact to many of these decisions. These young officers also have the most opportunity and responsibility for developing enlisted Marines through regular, meaningful contact. Yet these same leaders receive the least amount of education in their formative years. In fact, it is only after four to seven years that they are fully exposed to Marine Corps doctrine, as embodied in the Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication (MCDP) series. The Marine Corps should augment its Professional Military Education (PME) program in order to ensure that those officers most responsible for developing Marines, in garrison and in combat, and most often tasked with accomplishing missions on highly dispersed battlefields are well grounded in Marine Corps doctrine. Changes to required officer PME should begin with the infantry community because, as the largest single community, it is most affected by this omission in officer education.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 19, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA510330
Entities
People
- M. C. Danner
Organizations
- Marine Corps Combat Development Command