ed additional impetus to the curriculum revision then well under way by the faculty, which had remained relatively intact after the shutdown in June.

General Anderson as Commandant of the Air War College challenged the reasoning that had resulted in the closing of the college on the basis of its lack of prudence as to USAF's ultimate welfare. He pointed out the shortsightedness of denying the Air Force the opportunity to produce, on an orderly basis, highly qualified officers because of a temporary shortage in overall officer strength. He cited the examples of the U.S. Army, which at that very time was reinstating its War College, and the U.S. Navy, which had not curtailed any aspect of its professional educational efforts. The General concluded his reclama on the school's closing by pointing out that professional military education is a critical requirement in the evolution of an effective Air Force and is essential to the Nation's security.

The General's persuasiveness, abetted by the Nation's reassurance to the managers of its military establishment in terms of manpower and money under President Truman's leadership during the Korean affair, brought about a modified reversal of the directives that suspended the college's resident program. New directives stipulated that the Air War College could conduct two courses per year of five and one-half months each. On 10 June the Air War College was notified that the normal ten months' course for the class of 1952 would be reinstituted with a commencing date of 9 July 1951.

AS THE senior professional school in the Air Force educational system, the Air War College continues to maintain a graduatelevel environment. Its student body is composed of a highly selected group of mature, successful, and ambitious men. The learning environment of the school is oriented toward freedom in the expression of ideas and toward making it possible for each student to pursue

independent, analytical, creative thinking. The distinctive task of the Air War College is to educate senior officers in a way that will prepare them to plan and conduct future military operations in the national interest.

It has been traditional with professional military schools to prepare for war in time of peace. This preparation has become increasingly important within the past two and a half decades. Traditional military functions have expanded enormously. First, senior officers have become increasingly concerned with international affairs-with the premises of military policy, with the purposes for which military forces are used, and with the terms of reference under which they will be deployed. Second, senior officers have had to concern themselves with a greater number of military support functions. Problems such as finance, supply, research and development, public relations, manpower, and management have grown more complex and more demanding of the senior officer's time and attention. These developments have complicated the task of senior military education. In the future the problems confronting the officer in high command and staff positions will be even more complex than in the past.

A key development of our time has been the idea that national security is a function that encompasses the responsibilities of both military and nonmilitary agencies. Military agencies have thus become partners in an enterprise greater than the military alone. For example, the Communist exploitation of insurgent movements in underdeveloped areas of the world has required the United States to generate a unified national effort dedicated to the achievement, of stability and conditions favoring harmonious international relations. With the passage of time this concept of national security as a Government-wide function has become increasingly explicit. This broad function is reflected in the curriculum of the Air War College, as indeed it is in all the senior military schools today. Implicit in this concept is the consideration that senior military officers and civilians will participate

in the formulation and execution of diverse

national security policies and programs. This consideration will be paramount until national security itself ceases to be a concern of U.S. national policy. Such a prospect is not likely in the foreseeable future. Thus the Air War College curriculum is designed to prepare senior officers to function in the increasingly

complex roles which they are required to play in American and Western society.

The Air War College does not provide approved solutions to the problems that are presented to the student body throughout the academic year, nor does it attempt to prescribe or suggest in any manner what the solu

tions should be. In general, the military problems that must be dealt with in the higher echelons of command and staff are so complex and diversified and frequently include so many intangible and elusive factors as to preclude solution by formulas or established precedents. Therefore the Air War College student and his seminar group should arrive at solutions to problems through individual study, analytical reasoning, and reflective thinking. The value of solutions will depend in large measure upon the degree to which the student or the seminar group applies orderly, judicious, and logical thought processes. In fact the basic approach to solutions of problems affecting the national interest is the avoidance of traditionalism, rigidity of thought and doctrine, standardization of instruction, and the provision of dogmatic answers to problems of the future. The Air War College is not a postwar school. It is a prewar school.

The faculty of the Air War College requires officers who are especially selected on the basis of individual background, experience, interest, ability, and potential. Generally these individuals are graduates of a senior service school or joint college at the Air War College level and of a civilian college (master degree desirable), senior officers in the grade of colonel or lieutenant colonel with considerable career potential, officers with experience in joint or major commands, and officers with specialized or technical knowledge that uniquely fits them for duty with the Air War College.

The faculty prepares and implements the curriculum and its underlying theory. However, faculty members working directly with student seminars as faculty advisers serve more as counselors than instructors. As faculty advisers they are primarily concerned with ensuring that each student fully understands his assignments and treats all elements of the course of instruction in a logical, thorough, and timely fashion. In addition to serving in an evaluative function, each faculty member is assigned to a study area in support of the mission of the Air War College, where he

pursues individual professional scholarship designed to develop his capabilities and enhance his professional stature as a member of the faculty and as a senior officer of the Air Force.

The nature of the mission and objectives of the Air War College establishes the inherent requirements to increase the scope and depth of thinking and to develop in the student a capacity to treat military problems objectively and with facility and competence. These requirements, together with the high experience level of the students, have resulted in the selection of a system of instruction that emphasizes lectures and seminars as the principal means of informing the students of the current phases and problems studied in the resident program. Lectures are presented by outstanding visiting specialists, who are expected to deal, in a critical and comprehensive manner, with the central issues and problems met in each aspect of a study area. Primary emphasis in the lectures is placed upon a clear statement of the overall situation, on an analysis of major conditions and controlling factors, and on the interpretation of past experience, present trends, and possible future developments. Free and frank questioning of lecturers and joint discussion of the subject by the lecturers, faculty, and students are encouraged.

Seminars are designed to supplement the lectures and the individual research of students. These sessions afford opportunities for informal discussion in small groups and sometimes with visiting specialists on matters that relate to problems assigned to seminars. The seminars further provide students with valuable experience in conducting and participating in discussion groups, in extemporaneous presentation of ideas and viewpoints, and in analysis of problems under discussion.

Reading assignments are designed to provide the students with appropriate background and source material. They include not only a variety of commercially published materials and Government publications but also numerous reports, memorandums, and policy documents available only in Government files.

NEVER CEASING refinements have evolved the current Air War College curriculum into a planned sequence of interrelated studies. These studies provide the student with a comprehensive understanding of the nature and scope of international relations and conflicts; the formulation of national security policy; the basic concepts for the employment of military forces-particularly air forces-in general, limited, and unconventional wars; and the application of these understandings and concepts to current and future national and military strategy in the attainment of U.S. and allied objectives.

The thesis program, the major portion of the Air War College students' research activity, complements the lecture, reading, and seminar parts of the curriculum. Each student selects a problem dealing with some aspect of national defense for detailed research and analysis. The objectives of the program are to increase the individual's professional knowledge, to improve his analytical and writing abilities, and to provide an opportunity for the development of ideas or concepts dealing with significant problems of national defense. The operation of the program is flexible enough to permit each student to work at his own educational and experience level, to develop his ability to analyze a problem, and to write effectively about it. The program thus provides the Air Force with new ideas, new analyses, and frequently with a fresh treatment of old ideas.

Another enrichment program in the resident school curriculum is the annual National Security Forum. A group of prominent civilian leaders from the United States and Canada, representing the executive strata of business, industry, education, news media, publishing, professional, government, and other important fields, is invited to participate for a week with the students of the Air War College in a special phase of their instruction.

During the early spring of each year approximately thirty senior officers of the Air Reserve Forces (generals one year, colonels the next) are offered the opportunity to join the student body for an entire week. The

purpose of this course is to provide information to non-active-duty Air Reserve Forces senior officers which will bring them up to date on the military aspects of our national security policy. In addition, a résumé of Air Force plans, programs, and problem areas is presented.

Additionally, field exercises are conducted each year for the students and faculty at a number of Department of Defense installations. These exercises provide a firsthand acquaintanceship with information and problems not available in textbooks or from lectures but the knowledge of which can provide a realistic conception of operations vital to the security of the country.

In recognition of the increasing importance of officers in high command and staff positions holding academic degrees in addition to having broad military schooling and experience, an off-campus George Washington University Center of the College of General Studies was created on Maxwell Air Force Base. Established in the fall of 1961, the center provides an opportunity for Air War College students, faculty, and previous graduates to further their formal academic education in off-duty hours. Courses are offered toward the Bachelor of Arts degree in the College of General Studies and toward the degree of Master of Arts in International Affairs. Both these courses are complementary to the Air War College resident program and may be pursued by individual option.

AIR WAR COLLEGE education is

not confined to those officers fortunate enough to attend the resident school. By 1960 it had become apparent that a need existed to present the War College curriculum for nonresident students in a shorter course designed specifically for the active-duty senior USAF officer who could not attend the resident school. To meet this need the Extension Course underwent a series of modifications. This nonresident program was reorganized in 1962 into the Air War College Associate Program, comprised of the Air War College Cor