More Athens Than Sparta

Air Force officer education and training programs have evolved over the past 60 years from the service's creation out of the U.S. Army Air Corps. In that time, it has moved away from its 'warrior' roots and developed into a program that produces manager-specialists with little or no understanding of leading men and women in the profession of arms.This paper analyzes the history and development of officer education and training from the end of World War II through recent initiatives aimed at addressing the needs of the Expeditionary Air Force of the 21st Century. It concludes that although it has been through a series of incremental changes over the years, what the Air Force really needs is a top-to-bottom overhaul of its officer education and training program and that the best place to begin is with the Air and Space Basic Course taught at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.Once this course is changed to provide young officers the right kind of base-line experience required of leaders in the Expeditionary Air Force, the rest of the system of education and training can be altered, from pre-commissioning through the strategic levels of Professional Military Education, to provide officers with the right warrior and leadership skills at the right time. Such changes are critical in this modern era of the Expeditionary Air Force and the Global War on Terror.