A Broader Education for Special Forces Officers
Abstract
The purpose of this monograph is to examine whether the measures of effectiveness used in Special Forces officer education venues are sufficient to address the operational requirements over a career in a holistic manner. Past education evaluations approach measurements in an isolated manner and are limited temporally. The educational experiences of the officer over a career have many lasting aspects that should be evaluated in context if approached in a holistic fashion and, in great part, should be in the same lines as operational requirements. In order to recognize these aspects in relation to the changing nature of requirements, an education base that is even broader than what is provided today may provide additional avenues of approach to both the requirements and relevant measures of evaluation. Consequently, since it is unrealistic to expect students to be any better than their educators, education professionals need to be grown from within the Special Forces community to serve as 'educational artists' linking the strategic education requirements of the future with the tactical implementation of Special Forces officers. The methodology of this paper is to examine the context of Special Forces officer education through its brief history and consider how its effectiveness is managed. Typical measures of effectiveness are considered demonstrating common limitations use. This examination is relevant due to the nature of current and near-term threats which may involve continually changing conflicts that actually exceed the time period of an officer's career. Broadening Special Forces officer education to include greater exposure to more disciplines would create better cognitive freedom for plans and operations. Similarly, measures of effectiveness that are structured to tie aspects of events back to educational experiences in the context of the officer's car
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 19, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA544968
Entities
People
- Andre Nelson
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College