If we agree that the education process offers valuable tools to NCOs, we must first address the issue of whether or not the NCO community values formal education enough. If you surveyed NCOs, you'd get some who valued it for the potential, and some who valued it only because commissioned officers get it via PME and NCOs don't for the most part. The third and biggest group would hold it at arm's length, with suspicion. NCO's are, as a previous poster said, a "get 'er done" group whose bias for action and practicality are cornerstones of our battlefield success. The trick is opening a community-wide set of eyes to the potential of formal education.

Once NCOs as a group value formal education, the process becomes possible. The Marines are offering a tip of the hat to the intellectual abilities of NCOs -- in May, Marine Corps University is having a three-day conference at Quantico that is a mixture of professional, undergraduate and postgraduate level seminar, lecture and training. The kicker -- all expenses paid but senior officers and NCOs need not apply. Unless your name begins with "Corporal" or "Sergeant," you need to explain why you want to go.