As I understood it, for the Army the change for CGSC was to give priority to line officers to do the residency course. It was circa 2004 that I had a discussion with an Army O-3 about to be O-4 regarding this shift in the policy. Who knows whether this policy has been enforced given the manpower requirements of OIF/OEF. The Marine Corps has no such requirements -- my husband has been doing the Command and Staff correspondence course while in Fallujah. Also, the Marine Corps has had a reputation, at the War College level, of not necessarily sending people until _after_ they've had BN command. At least one person, whose opinion I trust and whose knowledge of the workings of the Corps is massive, has suggested this can be a problem.
One thing I'd be curious to know is what the stats are on reserve officer attendance at the War Colleges prior to 2001. It seems I run into a fair number of them attending the courses here at Newport, and I don't know whether that's a change (related to the operational requirements for AD officers) or the maintenance of the status quo.
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