Want to trim the federal budget and improve the military at the same time? Shut down West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy, and use some of the savings to expand ROTC scholarships.
After covering the U.S. military for nearly two decades, I've concluded that graduates of the service academies don't stand out compared to other officers. Yet producing them is more than twice as expensive as taking in graduates of civilian schools ($300,000 per West Point product vs. $130,000 for ROTC student). On top of the economic advantage, 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...
On Leadership panelists weight in:
Ed Ruggero, author of a definitive book on the training of leaders at West Point, says Ricks missed the mark.
A retired Army General says perhaps leadership can't be taught, but there is something to be said about West Point, which is the only institution of higher education devoted exclusively to creating leaders of character for our Army and the nation.
A retired Navy Captain and former Annapolis professor asks why the question needs to be asked in the first place.
Comments
Ricks IMO is really doing nothing more than perpetuating the "either/or" mindset that causes us much damage. Having worked around both sorts of officers, and being one of those much-despised "academics" (in the learning sense, not the many pieces of paper on the wall sense), I would contend that no commissioning source is automatically "better" than another. They are all different, with their specific strengths and weaknesses, and it's through the blending process (bringing those diverse experiences together) that we produce a truly outstanding officer corps. For every kid who feels the academies are "too military" I'd wager you could find one in ROTC who feels they aren't military enough. And the ROTC programs are uneven. The first two years of the Air Force program are rather weak in terms of practical military instruction when compared to the Army and Navy/Marine Corps programs...but that can also help ease some kids into the program who might otherwise be discouraged. ROTC is also very dependent on the personality of the det commander. An interesting situation.
Addendum comment to my above post: one should consider not closing the military academies, but perhaps opening their doors to new curriculum, teachers, or students. If ROTC is deemed the best model upon which to build the foundations of an officer, than reshape the military academies to more closely resemble ROTC. But to close them would close over a nearly two centuries of pride and tradition. Many of the Naval Academy graduates I know were only cynical towards the military because they felt some of their experience at the academy was frivolous, irrelevant, and antiquated (i.e. singing school pride songs, always wearing the uniform, restricted leave and liberty.) Perhaps the answer is simply to scale back the amount of "military" that is found in the military academies.
As a graduate of a large public university, my commissioning source was ROTC. I agree in part with the author only in so much as officers that come out of ROTC have a broader liberal arts education, more interaction with their civilian counterparts, and have many experiences that can only be found outside the confines of a military academy. With that being said, I would not be so quick to praise ROTC and admonish the military academies. ROTC could use a lot of revising and while ROTC cadets and midshipmen may be "educated alongside future doctors, judges, teachers, executives, mayors and members of Congress," it does not necessarily mean they are any better for it. In fact, the few classmates I still have contact with from my college days were all in ROTC with me. In short, an ROTC program is essentially a military academy hidden within the college campus, as many participants share a similar outlook and are much closer with one another than their sometimes all too liberal classmates. On top of that, as many become more involved with ROTC it becomes increasingly harder to relate to students who are not a part of the program, as they will be off job hunting and interviewing after graduation while you are preparing for an upcoming deployment. Additionally, many bad habits can be formed in some of the larger and more public colleges and universities that do not exactly lend themselves to the qualities one would expect in an armed forces officer.