Initial Officer Selection

[ganulv]

To get back to the topic of this thread, today the minimum for being an officer is having a college degree, to an extent having the "good family" thing and having strong letters of recommendation with your application.

Hence my contention that before degree courses you attempt to blood your young officers in combat so as to see it they have what it takes in this regard. In the last ten years or so there has been ample opportunity to test officers at all level in combat. A six month tour here ansd a six month tour there does not cut it IMHO.

Once this (combat) filter has been applied then the military can decide you they are going to invest in in terms of degree level and higher education. I call this putting the horse before the cart.

Does anyone know what the stated justification for the expectation of a bachelor’s degree for new officers is in the U.S. branches?* In my experience, a non-professional degree (from a U.S. institution, at least) is pretty hit-or-miss as far as vouching for a holder’s basic capabilities. Apart from the holders of math and math-heavy degrees such as physics, I would guess that few college graduates can match mortarmen in terms of basic math skills, for example. And the holder of a humanities degree from Big State U has spent most of his/her instruction hours in a lecture hall and has had most of his/her assignments marked by a harried professor or an even more harried graduate student and as such received little of the kind of interaction that is effective in improving writing skills.

*It makes sense to me for direct commissions, since their college experience puts a premium on professional training.