ROTC Cadets paid to learn languages

[Entropy]

The Air Force has been using its scholarship system for some time to more or less prioritize specific majors. It's a system that tends to undervalue some areas, and can be slow to shift in times of need. That said, it has been very successful at recruiting engineers.

That's very true. My wife is an example. She was accepted to a prestigious engineering school and in exchange for a full-ride from the Air Force, the service picked her degree and career field. It worked out really well for her.

However, I don't think it's appropriate to run the entire system this way - you need generalists and you need people from a variety of educational backgrounds.

Language incentives for ROTC are a good thing, IMO, though these will only be effective if there continue to be incentives once in the service - IOW, more pay and promotion opportunities if the language ability is maintained and increased. And one other thing to consider - recruit more dedicated linguists and allow them to spend more of their careers outside of the intelligence community.

Which brings up the problem of retention....

[John T. Fishel]

the School of International & Area Studies (SIAS) of the University of Oklahoma (where I teach) has language programs in both Arabic and Chinese as well as quite a bit of scholarship money and ROTC programs from all services. It also has a large number of very good study abroad programs and opportunities - China and Japan, among others, come to mind.

If you happen to know any good prospective students from wherever, tell them to look us up as we are, IMO, one of the best kept secrets of American academia. (so much for the blatant commercial message)

Cheers

JohnT

[BayonetBrant]

Hey - I was an English Writing/Editing major, and I had to fight the ROTC dept for giving bumps on the OML to guys in engineering and hard sciences. Just because I didn't go for a hard science degree didn't mean I couldn't have. I got into MIT as a chemistry major, but didn't want to do it.
If English was that easy, then why were all my peers getting mid-grade C's on all their papers? It was because they didn't care enough about their writing to pay attention to it.

Now let me ask you this? How do guys in the Army get promoted, counseled, rewarded, etc? Oh yeah, in writing... What you write about someone, and how you say it, matters.

So if you want to bang on the non-technical degrees, go right ahead. But how often are your doing civil engineering calculations in your head (especially as an infantryman)? And how often are you putting pen to paper to get some result of your actions?

I think language credit for cadets is a great idea. I think restricting the list of majors for ROTC cadets on scholarship even has some merit. But if some guy wants to pay his own way through school and get a psych degree, and take ROTC classes while doing so? Hands off, people.

[ODB]

Having gotten back on track to get my degree after many years of no formaling schooling has been a challenge. My biggest obstacle is in writing papers after years of military writing. All the writing classes in the world prior to joining the military would not have done me a bit of good. The military has it's own writing format and style, check out:

http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r25_50.pdf

and

http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/p600_67.pdf

That doesn't even begin to cover NCOER, OER, and counseling. Which counseling should be bullets only anyways, if writing paragraphs when counseling then maybe someone needs some counseling sessions on counseling. My personal favorite counseling manual:

http://www.sflistteamhouse.com/humor...2/FM22-102.htm

I am guilty of getting a bit irrate when it comes to counseling, too many leaders do not know how to do it properly nor do they care to learn.

[jkm_101_fso]

So if you want to bang on the non-technical degrees, go right ahead. But how often are your doing civil engineering calculations in your head (especially as an infantryman)? And how often are you putting pen to paper to get some result of your actions?

I certainly wasn't. I have a J-school degree myself.

[Stan]

Language incentives for ROTC are a good thing, IMO, though these will only be effective if there continue to be incentives once in the service - IOW, more pay and promotion opportunities if the language ability is maintained and increased. And one other thing to consider - recruit more dedicated linguists and allow them to spend more of their careers outside of the intelligence community.

Which brings up the problem of retention....

On both counts, dead on the money as always.
Only DIA truly pushed her officers and NCOs with language retention benefits, but upon leaving the intel system we were inevitably faced with the real Army and our abilities similarly overcome by events.

Hmmm, retention you say

[John T. Fishel]

But I still think that English Lit (although not the way the Harvard English Dept faculty is proposing to change their major uh concentration - there is an article on this in the Harvard Crimson). We are in general agreement. I also agree with the notion of offering some financial incentive for majors currently deemed useful, just not forcing cadets and midshipmen into cookie cutter majors. On the other hand, perhaps "Underwater Basketweaving" is not really useful to anybody.... - or maybe the SEALS can use it...

Merry Christmas to all

JohnT

[Entropy]

One of the finest intel officers I knew had a divinity degree from Harvard. He was not only very bright, but unencumbered by bias instilled by the international relations and political science establishment which most in my career field seem to come from. A diverse background seemingly unrelated to one's work is something I think is both good and necessary even though the benefits are not always apparent. Any subject or major can teach an inclined individual to analyze and think - and in most cases, learning to think through problems is much more valuable than some set of acquired knowledge.

[Rex Brynen]

One of the finest intel officers I knew had a divinity degree from Harvard. He was not only very bright, but unencumbered by bias instilled by the international relations and political science establishment which most in my career field seem to come from. A diverse background seemingly unrelated to one's work is something I think is both good and necessary even though the benefits are not always apparent.

When I spent a sabbatical working at Political and Security Policy Planning at the (Canadian) Department of Foreign Affairs, my boss--himself a fellow political science PhD too--used to say that the problem with political science students was that you had to spend two years having them unlearn what they had been taught.

Its an exaggeration, of course—I think a lot of what we teach is rather useful—but there is nonetheless a continuing failure of academic political science to address the practical art of political and policy processes. Equally, while a good number of my students have gone on to be (intel) analysts, their poli sci GPAs are only loosely correlated with how well they function in their current positions (in large part because neither empathy nor common sense are things that we grade for!).

[Entropy]

Rex,

All good points and I should have pointed out that much of my educational background is political science and international relations!

[Rex Brynen]

Rex,

All good points and I should have pointed out that much of my educational background is political science and international relations!

I guessed as much!