Setting a New Course for the Military

Written by Joan Michel

MAE 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 6 (November/December)

“Wars are different in the 21st century than they were in the 20th century,” said Dr. Frederick Lough, vice dean and professor of Cardiac Surgery at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and a former Army surgeon. “We’re engaged in urban warfare against an insurgent and terrorist network. The weapons are different and the information systems are radically different than even 15 years ago.”

In this new environment, Lough said, the education gained in the areas of information management, language, culture and history from attending a civilian institution will be critical to the effectiveness of the new generations of military leaders.

“The advantages of a civilian education to a military officer are huge,” Lough said. “You get a broader experience and meet people from a wide array of educational and socio-economic backgrounds. That exposure is critical to the ongoing benefit of our country.”

Lough himself came from a military family with a tradition of moving back and forth between the military and civilian communities. His father was a career Army official—a soldier in World War II who, after getting a law degree from Columbia University, served as a military JAG officer. The younger Lough graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and then went to medical school at George Washington University. While in the military, Lough served at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and in Korea as a general surgeon and as a cardiac surgeon at Letterman Army Medical Center. After 15 years in private practice, Lough returned to George Washington University to direct its cardiac surgery department, lead the university’s military medical student program, and act as adviser to the military students.

The university currently has 35 students who are active duty military enrolled in medical school through the Health Professionals Scholarship Program. Sponsored by the Army, Navy and the Air Force, the program pays for medical school tuition, books and supplies and provides a monthly stipend in exchange for the students serving four to six years in the military after completing the training that follows medical school.

“It is critical to have the flow between the civilian and military medical communities,” Lough said. “People from both sides can learn from and be exposed to highly skilled physicians. Military physicians work in urban emergency rooms and share elements of battlefield medicine and the lessons learned there. Similarly, that physician can take best practices from an emergency room and put them to work for the warfighter.”

At Duke University in North Carolina, 25 military students are pursuing master’s degrees in business administration. The curriculum is flexible, so the students can design their graduate degree to align with their military career path.

“Our mission is to educate leaders of consequence,” said Liz Riley Hargrove, associate dean for admissions at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. “We want students to come to Duke who want to make an impact and improve things. Military students do incredibly well in our programs because they can hone and refine leadership skills and access a more global network of people and professional contacts.”

Duke also has a partnership with the U.S. Military Academy under which they underwrite the advanced degree of an active duty military student who then will return to the academy to teach. Started in 2003, the program covers whatever tuition and costs the government does not for that student. Hargrove said Duke has had a student in the program every year since its inception.

Major Eric Jamison just returned to West Point after finishing his degree at Duke and is now teaching economics and finance to students there. Jamison, who has been in the military for 12 years as an armor officer and troop commander in Operation Iraqi Freedom, believes that his civilian education will be enormously beneficial to his career in the military.

“An officer in today’s military serves in a dynamic and changing environment,” Jamison said. “You have to think across different disciplines in order to solve real-world problems. These problems are multidisciplinary in nature. For example, in Iraq, as we attempt to rebuild local communities, there is an idea of having a strong economy and a stable environment. How do you go about doing that? You can’t pursue one without the other. Soldiers there are working to create economic development initiatives, create uncorrupt governmental bodies, and do all of that while providing security.”

Jamison said his education forced him to think across disciplines and helped him create mental agility: “Grad school turns you into a problem-solver and a thinker, which is incredibly valuable for the Army.”

TAILORED PROGRAMS

Other schools are also offering programs with military-related students specifically in mind. At the University of California at Davis, for example, students can pursue military sciences as an academic course of study. There, the Military Science Department offers hands-on training in management and leadership and offers classes in current events, national and international politics, military affairs, ethics training and human relations at an undergraduate level. While there is no military obligation associated with the program, many students go on to join the military or the ROTC.

Lieutenant Colonel Terry Love, a U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer and professor at Fort Valley State University in Fort Valley, Ga., also noted the new environments in which the U.S. military and the Department of Defense operate.

“I believe it is more important than ever to populate America’s armed forces with top-notch officers and enlisted men— critical thinkers—who are agile and adaptive leaders, technically proficient in war fighting and non-war fighting skills, and who possess the intellectual capacity to function effectively and efficiently given the complexities of global threats,” Love said.

Love, who has 19 years of active duty service, said that the Army needs a multidisciplinary officer corps, and while there is a deliberate effort to increase the number of professionals in engineering and science fields, that does not discount the significance of personnel in other disciplines such the “arts.” In fact, he said, one can argue that humanities studies could greatly help servicemembers better understand the complexities of today’s warfare, which calls for a military capable of projecting both combat and non-combat force.

“Because we find ourselves conducting various operations other than combat, such as stability operations, support to civil authorities, nation building, counterinsurgencies and reconstruction operations, we must be equipped with personnel who have skills to operate across the spectrum of military operations,” said Love.

Fort Valley has an active ROTC program and is the only host Historically Black College and University program in Georgia. Courses in military science are taken during the freshman and sophomore years and are designed to teach principles of leadership and to develop in each student an understanding of the role of the Army in the defense of the United States.

Advanced courses taken during the junior and senior years provide training and experience in decision-making, officer ethics and professionalism. After completing the military science advanced courses and upon receiving a bachelor’s degree in any major, a student is commissioned a second lieutenant in one of the career branches in the U.S. Army.

Among other schools aiming to aid servicemembers looking to advance their military careers, the University of San Diego offers military students a master’s in global leadership focused on international business leadership. The program takes students through a 16-month, 31-unit curriculum focused on developing leadership skills tailored to global business, to include classes on cultural sensitivities and project management. Approximately 400 students have graduated since the program’s inception.

Finally, East Carolina University in North Carolina offers programs for current and future military officers. One program, called Global Understanding, links the university to over 30 nations and directly into the culture and religion of those many regions. ROTC cadets are encouraged to take this cultural anthropology class to better understand the areas and the people and the university sends a few cadets overseas to live in foreign countries and learn their customs and languages. The university uses real-time videoconferencing, chat, e-mail and other Internet tools that allow for direct connections with partner countries anywhere in world.

“We see the graduates of the future—whether they are future officers, enlisted or civilians—as people living in a different world,” said Steven Duncan, East Carolina University’s director of military affairs. “We seek to embed our students and ROTC in a global saturation where they not only learn how the United States functions but how the world functions. It is the least we can do to prepare the future leaders.” ♦

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