Thinking Outside The Box — Eliminate West Point
People who think outside the box are either nut cases or geniuses. Isaac Newton, Socrates, Leonardo daVinci, Henry Ford and Newt Gingrich come to mind.
Now comes columnist and author Thomas Ricks with a proposal I’m uncertain jumps the shark. Ricks proposes elimination of West Point and other service academies to, uh, save money. The savings would expand ROTC scholarships.
I can only presume Ricks is serious and by coincidence or timed at the moment President Obama is asking his cabinet to cut $100 million from their budgets. Ricks is no flake. He has covered the military for 20 years and is author of “The Gamble” about the Iraq war from 2006 to 2008.
“I’ve been told by some commanders that they prefer officers who come out of ROTC programs, because they tend to be better educated and less cynical about the military,” Ricks writes.
You can imagine the hostile reaction graduates from West Point, Annapolis, the Air Force Academy and other military colleges would create. Now there’s a formidable lobbying group with not only rank but attitude.
Argues Ricks:
Not only do ROTC graduates make fine officers — three of the last six chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reached the military that way — they also would be educated alongside future doctors, judges, teachers, executives, mayors and members of Congress. That would be good for both the military and the society it protects.
As for the expense, Ricks says it costs $300,000 to produce a West Point officer but $130,000 for an ROTC student. He explains:
This is no knock on the academies’ graduates. They are crackerjack smart and dedicated to national service. They remind me of the best of the Ivy League, but too often they’re getting community-college educations. Although West Point’s history and social science departments provided much intellectual firepower in rethinking the U.S. approach to Iraq, most of West Point’s faculty lacks doctorates. Why not send young people to more rigorous institutions on full scholarships, and then, upon graduation, give them a military education at a short-term military school?
Ricks’ proposal is tempting although I doubt it stands a snowball chance in hell. For one thing, I don’t understand the savings aspect. What money is saved from service academy costs is only transferred to ROTC scholarships which would far exceed those now attending the academies.
It also smacks of East Coast elitism.
The concept of a military graduate school is laudable.
The military academy model is based on a career in the armed forces. The ROTC programs are designed for careers of one’s choice. I foresee a dark scenario in which the ROTC produces a saturation of junior officers and too few colonels, commanders and generals.
Ricks may have scored a coup in respect to fitting our military into the challenges of the 21st Century. I foresee a response often made by our new president:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Cross posted on The Remmers Report
7 Responses to “Thinking Outside The Box — Eliminate West Point”
Actually Ricks has some points here (no pun intended) but they are an argument for more ROTC scholarships, not the end of the service academies.
The Academies are noted for being a) hard to get into both politically and intellectually (and thus are selective both ways) and b) turning out military professionals who tend to stay in service longer. Their graduates are ambitious and smart and they mostly want to be flag officers. ROTC graduates have the advantage of not being academy graduates and are often much more innovative and more broadly educated. But they are not any smarter, as a rule, and are not as ambitious. When they decide to make the military a career, they add a lot. And a fair number stay in because they love the service. (After all, putting your life on the line for your fellow citizens is the highest form of public service.)
The mix of the two often enhances the services in a synergistic manner. Let go of one and the services lose in the long run.
I say this as a long time Reserve officer (28 years all told) who was neither (as a physician) and have been able to observe both over a long time.
The service academies offer free (for a price of staying in the military) education to the best and brightest from any class or part of the country. ROTC scholarships offer similar monies to others who are willing to serve but want to go to another school. It is even possible to go to a school that does not allow ROTC on campus by a series of clever methods. Together they are a no lose proposition.
Good post, Jerry
As a non-Air Force Academy graduate, who got my commission “the hard way,” coming up through the ranks, studying nights and weekends to meet the academic standards to go to Officer Candidate School, and then going through a hellish” six month training program, I could easily jump on Ricks' bandwagon and say, Yeah, Yeah, close the academies.
But I will not. I firmly believe that in addition to the ROTC program (and other sources of commissioned officers) we need the service academies.
In the first place—perhaps with a few exceptions–the qualification and selection process to get into one of the academies are extremely rigorous; and so is the four year academic and military training and education process.
I totally disagree with the author's thumbing down of the academic quality at the service academies.
As an example, the science and aerospace departments at the Air Force Academy are probably some of the best ones anywhere.
The commitment, dedication, perseverance, leadership, name it, of service academies graduates is unparalleled.
“I’ve been told by some commanders that they prefer officers who come out of ROTC programs, because they tend to be better educated and less cynical about the military,” Ricks writes.” Totally anecdotal, if that!
Yes, ROTC graduates, and others make excellent officers, but we need to mix that with the tradition, spirit, and excellence that service academy graduates bring to the table–and to the skies, the oceans and the battlefield.
As Jerry says:
“The concept of a military graduate school is laudable.
The military academy model is based on a career in the armed forces. The ROTC programs are designed for careers of one’s choice. I foresee a dark scenario in which the ROTC produces a saturation of junior officers and too few colonels, commanders and generals.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Dorian
Good idea, wrong reason.
Using the argument that public colleges provide a better (more rounded) education is ludicrous, to say the least. The service academies provide the most rigorous curriculums and maintain the highest standards imaginable. Almost all graduates continue their educations at other institutions (MBA being the most common post graduate degree) due to requirements for promotion and the fact that it’s 100% paid for on top of their salaries.
The individual service academies should be eliminated to change the culture of Army-centric, Navy-centric and Air Force-centric thinking that permeates our forces now. This type of branch heritage and loyalty based mindset costs the government hundreds of billions in excess spending each year.
As is evident to any student of the military, the existing thought pattern is that every mission needs an internal solution in each service branch. Therefore, the Army feels it needs its own ships and aircraft while the other branches argue the need for tanks, etc. A combined force saves money and works better.
Having one combined academy would foster the type of esprit de corps that is necessary for an effective imperialist conquering force.
I'm not sure that jwest is correct in saying that each service is so internally centric that it is a problem that only can be solved by doing away with the service academies.
Granted, what he says is a problem, each service looks after itself in the budgeting process and in the Pentagon, but there are major efforts to combat the problems that can arise.
I finished Command and General Staff School over a decade ago, but I was taught that working with the other services was vital. I was also told that experience in “Purple Suit” (combined forces) positions was not only an enhancer for promotion but almost mandatory. I don't know if that has changed, but there are great efforts to diminish the problem jwest alludes to. My having been an officer in both the Navy and the Army was a help to my promotion.
In addition, once you graduate from a service academy, you can join any of the services as an officer. Taking that option is unlikely and unusual, but it can be done. The academies don't teach only to the individual service, they teach to service to the country.
Finally someone addressed the concept of combining the service academies, which would cut costs and produce officers not only familiar with but used to cooperating with all services.
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