the order mr whitman was just finishing a speech on the floor of the house and should be with us just a moment as we go ahead and start good afternoon welcome to the fourth in a series of hearings on officer in residence professional military education known as p m e we've already heard at the subcommittee from the senior level and intermediate level schools now it's time for the primary schools and the army navy and air force academy the skelton panel twenty years ago recognizes the early part of officers career focuses on the tactical realm and what the service is called core competencies meaning the skill sets required by a particular warfare especially however it is increasingly apparent that officer being required to operate in joint interagency intergovernmental multi national environment earlier in their careers are all this is ready for this new operational reality what knowledge is truly necessary at what level should we consider these skills as part of a not separate from core competencies do we need to redefine service core competencies according to the new national security environment and we also understand the other themes of earlier hearings relative to this developmental level foundations for strategy particular to the study of history language skills and cultural competency and hybrid warfare we will win mr whitman arise we will give him a chance to make any comments he wants to make our witnesses there are general dana born dean of the faculty the us air force academy peter general patrick fit again dean of the academic board expeditionary warfare school we appreciate you all being with us here today we as we get further and further into this topic the more interested we get in it and also the more  important we're putting on this look at it has been some time since the congress i think any other body has taken a look at the in some depth of the issue professional military education your presence here is very helpful here written statements will be part of the formal record of the committee and we'll put the clock on there that will fire up the red glare at five minutes but if you still have to tell us you tell us we will our superintendent brigadier general sam cox and myself i would like to thank you for the opportunity to address how we prepare our cadets and future officers for the challenges they will face in today's national security environment we think it is important that our services continually assess how well we prepare our service members for the challenging roles they must play in serving our nation and we appreciate the efforts of this committee to help us meet our current and our future requirements our mission at the air force academy is to educate train and inspire men and women to become officers of character motivated to lead united states air force in service to our nation  and our program to meet the developmental needs of young officers in the current national security environment and provide the foundation to grow into future strategic thinkers and leaders through a broad spectrum of academic athletic military and character education and training opportunities our four year program focuses on achieving developmental outcomes that imbue our graduates with suicidal professional and individual responsibilities and empowers them with an of intellectual and warrior skills and establishes a foundation of knowledge essential to the profession of arms our curriculum is acknowledged as among the best in the nation or the united states news and world report ranked the best in the west for two years in a row in the back glory degree category we were recently recommended for a maximum national accreditation of ten years by the higher learning commission and our graduates continue to earn numerous national competitive scholarships and today fifty two percent of the general officers in our air force our air force academy graduates our faculty and staff are exceptionally well qualified and well prepared we have a teaching staff of five hundred twenty five of about thirty percent which are civilian faculty over fifty percent of our faculty members hold p h d or term in a great degree in their field our faculty also includes six endowed chairs seven distinguished visiting professors eight international officers and twelve sister exchange officers we also have inner agenc scholars in residence from the cia the n s a department of homeland security and the state department maintaining a high caliber of personnel presents many challenges particularly in attracting and maintaining the right mix of military faculty due to the competition with the operational needs of our air force in particular shortages of rated officers scientists and engineers across the air force make it harder for us to keep the specialty at desired levels another challenge is just the sheer workload in delivering our diverse curriculum a recent manpower study validated the need for us to increase the faculty staff by twenty one percent to meet our current requirements however because it's unlikely that we will obtain the required finding dissipate this manning shortfall will continue our academic curriculum comprises one hundred forty seven semester hours of instruction with a balanced coverage of social sciences humanities basic sciences and engineering several courses from the academic core curriculum focused directly on the areas of strategy military history irregular warfare interagency and multicultural operations as well as language and culture and they continually are updated to reflect emerging issues and ideas outside the core curriculum many classes and courses and programs further develop strategic skills or store or the special topics that i just listed this year more than six hundred cadets participated in language and cultural immersion programs and military exchanges with over forty countries some are training operational air force base and sister service training opportunities as well we also have had at centered research programs in the fields of space operations unmanned aerial systems and computer network defense we recognize that while the air force academy is only the start of the process in developing the next generation of strategic leaders for our air force we provide critical foundation however for these careers we also believe that as junior leaders in the military our graduates must be able to translate the big ideas of leaders into operational reality thus we must develop the necessary competencies as early as possible in an officer's career we're proud of our team effort at the air force academy to provide a nation with the best and brightest new officers and leaders of character with the knowledge skills and responsibilities to lead our future air force we thank you very much for this opportunity to share our programs and our ideas with you today we share your vision focused passion oriented our program the joint interagency coalition national security environment of the twenty first century with the chairman snyder chairman skelton good afternoon brigadier general patrick finnegan dean of the academic board of the united states military academy at west point i graduated from west point in one hundred seventy one and served around the world for twenty seven years as an infantry officer and as a military intelligence officer and finally as a judge advocate including in three joint assignments before returning to my alma mater nine hundred ninety eight as a staff judge advocate one year later i became the professor and head of the department of law where i serve for six years before being selected as the dean position i've been privileged to hold for the last four years on behalf of our superintendent lieutenant general buster hagen back in our commandant general mike lymington in our entire staff faculty we appreciate the opportunity to share with this committee how westpoint the country's premier leadership development institution continues to produce smart highly adaptive leaders of character were capable of succeeding in today's increasingly complex and difficult operational environments credibly proud of our institution and the many achievements of our staff back graduates but we also recognize the importance of continual reassessment and honest feedback to that end we appreciate this committee's efforts in helping our program to evolve in ways that best meet the changing needs of our army and our nation the forty seven months was when experience begins and ends with our mission to educate train in this fire the corps of cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of duty honor country and prepared for a career professional excellence and service to the nation as in the united states army a way to capture what we try to do comes from one of my favorite quotes intellectual challenges our leaders face in the current environment the richness and breadth of the westpoint education combines world class academics with a rigorous military physical moral and ethical program we introduce to a broad range of subjects while familiariz ing them with experiences ultimately prepare them to successfully engage a diverse set of issues throughout their military careers our program has repeatedly recognized both nationally and internationally as a top tier college and preeminent leader development institution we're currently ranked as the best public college in america by forbes dot com and the best public liberal arts college by u s news and world report over the past year west point cadets earned an extraordinary number of national scholarships from rhodes in truman to ten rotary international scholarships and beyond the academy west point graduates continually replicate this kind of success our academic program includes forty five majors graduates complete thirty core courses in an average of one hundred forty seven semester hours worth of course work those courses provide cadets with extensive coverage across the spectrum of disciplines such as mathematics mathematics and natural science engineering history literature foreign languages behavioral science geography and military science we've taken a lead role in promoting opportunities to foster cross cultural and language competence in our cadets by offering instruction in eight language including the most recent foresee and sponsoring an active semester abroad exchange program involving one hundred fifty could at the core of our success as a top tier college lies not only in the diversity of curriculum but in the cadets access to an equally diverse wonder faculty who believe that our mix of civilian faculty rotating military faculty permanent military faculty provides an outstanding education as well as role models and mentors of professionalism and the values we adhere to as an institution and an army our faculty members both civilian and military to foster close relationships with the army and other organizations that are tied to current operations priorities and analytical needs we find these interactions not only bolster the currency and relevancy of our faculty but also help to better focus our curriculum in light of the ever changing demands our graduates will eventually face we currently have faculty members from the department of state and s a a dis and the geographical information service when it comes to developing strategic thinkers westpoint is invested in how cadets learn to become independent thinkers the strategic particulars a face in the future will come with time and experience learning how to think about the moral and ethical challenges of the current operational environment are foundational skills that we most highly value in the final analysis the number rhodes scholars or national rankings by outside organizations do not matter nearly as much as what our graduates accomplish in defense of our nation the best measure of our success is the performance of our graduates and what they are trained and educated to do and from second lieutenant brian jackson class of zero five or in the distinguished service medal to generals odierno mcchrystal and petraeus to the more than sixty graduates men and women who have given their lives in the defense of freedom in the current fight we are confident that we are accomplishing our mission and producing the scholar warders our country requires of its oldest military academy out of the diverse education opportunities and leader development effort affords each graduating class in our efforts to maintain the exceptional quality of the overall westpoint education we'll continue to adjust our curriculum so that it meets the needs of our nation and the increasingly difficult challenges our graduates will face in our future services our discussion here today is one of the critical steps in that process thank you for providing me this opportunity to share a perspective with you and i look forward to answering your question thank you yes good afternoon snyder and other distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the house armed services subcommittee on the oversight and investigations i am captain matthew klunder the eighty third commandant of the united states naval academy and i thank you for the opportunity to speak today about the mission of the naval academy and more specifically how we prepare mid shipmen to become officers ready to meet the demands of a country at war or at peace and ready to face the challenges when increasingly interdependent and dynamic world both today and in the future the mission of the naval academy the development midshipman morally mentally and physically and to do them with the highest ideals of duty honor and loyalty in order to graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of naval service and a potential future development in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command citizenship in government essential purpose of the naval academy is to grow shape and motivate junior officer leaders for the navy marine corps and the emphasis in our three primary focus areas the moral mental and physical development of our midshipman all three of our programs are complementary and fully integrated throughout the institution the naval academy combines character development undergraduate education and professional training provide officers that are selfless inspirational proficient innovative articulate adaptable and professional as we further discussed our naval academy graduates i've been asked to comment among other things on our curriculum in the balance between academic and military requirements may first touch on our world class faculty our five hundred fifty member faculties an integrated group of officers and civilians nearly equal numbers this composition is unique among service academies currently officers rotate to the academy for two to three year assignments bringing not only fresh ideas and experiences from operationally isn't a marine corps but their joint interagency experiences as well the cademy civilian faculty members give continuity to the educational program and virtually all have dr agrees with many of them leading scholars in their fields the naval academy academic curriculum develops the intellectual foundation for the professional competence essential to leadership in the naval service in accordance with the secretary the navy guidance we have couple a strong core technical foundation in science technology engineering and mathematics studies and humanities social sciences leadership professional military training and character development to ensure that every midshipman is well prepared as a junior officer in our division leadership as education and development provide midshipman with an integrated and comprehensive educational program in leadership ethics character and law and the opportunity to study specialized electives in these fields in our division refreshment professional development but you are allowed to develop professionally by immersion into naval culture on land and its c with emphasis on building personal competence through professional mariner skills and warfare community exposure the character development training vision is task for the development of leadership and character attributes from a chairman outside the normal academic environment this integrated character and leadership development program is the single most important feature the distinguishes the naval academy from other educational institutions and other commissioning sources recent geopolitical developments beginning with the end of the cold war but more evident since nine eleven have also highlighted the growing need for naval leaders to acquire greater knowledge about the history culture civilization languages and religions of geographic regions with strategic importance to the united states the naval academy has adopted to differentiate approach to achieving this goal by one providing small numbers of midshipmen with extensive in country study abroad programs to affording larger groups of midshipmen with a significant foreign language and professional immersion programs and three according to all our  midshipmen with enhanced opportunities to acquire greater cultural knowledge through outstanding elective courses and visiting international experts in addition to our longstanding tradition of exchanging cadets image him and between the service academies we also have fifty three international for your exchange midshipmen from twenty eight different nations along with twenty one semester exchange midshipman from several foreign military academies and rolled at the naval academy all which contribute significantly to the brigade's regional and cultural awareness allow me today to conclude by refrain back to the main focus of our naval academy mission to develop midshipman morally mentally and physically the challenge of our mission is to main remain tain a very delicate balance between the moral mental and physical aspects of our curriculum to ensure that we continue to gradually leaders there are prepared to lead sailors and marines immediately upon graduation i observe our midshipman on a daily basis and i am convinced that we are succeeding in cheating that correct balance for their limited time i hope that i was able to provide some insights into our institutions professional military education and how it touches every aspect of midshipman development training and education the united states naval academy on behalf of the behalf of the students the faculty the superintendent and will follow her and the staff at the naval academy you sir chairman snyder chairman skelton making member women members of the subcommittee thank you for this opportunity to appear and testify about squadron officer college i wanted to discuss with you the important role that's quite an officer college plays in the professional development of the air force's most important resource people one officer called is located a mass flare force base alabama as the air force's educational institution committed to developing company grade officers well enough for college is comprised of two schools college to become the premier leadership development institution in the air force we are building towards a vision by executing our mission which is to develop company great officers as leaders of integrity ready to fly fight and win in aerospace and cyber space elegies mission success or is to schools in the numerous educational initiatives underway now describe each of those briefly here in space basic course is a newer of the two schools launched just a decade ago with a six week resident program that's conducted ten times a year two weeks of the course provide hands on instruction in skills specifically related to operations in an expeditionary environment especially qualified and listed in officers train the students and then execute what they've learned to simulated deployment locations one small tent city on the base another at a two hundred plus take a remote site located about thirty miles from maxwell edition students spend a week building a working knowledge of officer in most relationships through interaction with students from our senior noncommissioned officer academy and national guard officers attending school each year in space basic course graduated its thirty thousand student last month the school represents the air force's investment in today's junior officers will become tomorrow's space in cyberspace power leaders there in space basic course is a crucial first step in the professional military education of air force officers the next step in their professional development is the college's second educational program squad and officer school  unquestionably a leadership school resident program is five weeks long and employs a wide variety of academics and experience a lot of friends it's a class consists of some four hundred twenty airports active duty guard and reserve officers as well as a handful of rank equivalent air force civilians and ition three of the seven classes each year has some forty international partner nations that are older cats and equivalents in the course students also benefit significantly from interaction with others who have different specialties experiences and perspectives relationships that result are major positive consequence of the program there are four schools for eighty percent of one of the air force officers two towns quite enough for school and distance learning versions available for those unable to attend in residence what an officer school is innovator in professional military education and is key to the college realizing its vision as a leadership center of excellence this year we began an effort to enhance its curriculum efforts sparked interest from its academic counterparts across the country including the university of texas and michigan in stick michigan state and kansas state university their fourth officer will remain at the company grade level for roughly nine years in recognition of today's complex national security environment the air force is committed to additional development opportunities in order to match the increasing responsibilities and challenges they will face during that period as a result the college is designed five targeted voluntary developmental element developmental distance learning offerings collectively known as the company grade officer leadership program first courses offered in march of two thousand and nine and the rest will launch later this year with an annual faculty turnover rate of roughly one third the college must also make a robust investment in its faculty education and training or to achieve the high standard it is set for instruction design a rob responsible for the national development of the entire air force company great officer corps you're accomplishing our mission through in a way of programs and initiatives that ensure rewarding developmental experiences and justifiably proud of my people their drive and innovation underscore anticipated and effectively prepared its graduates to meet the complex challenges of the operating environments to which they were dispatched today's expeditionary warfare school is the product of a two thousand and two merger between two quantico based career level  you know us is nine and a half months curriculum provides marine service and there are national captains career level professional military education and commanding control planning naval expeditionary operations employment of the greater ground task force ashore operational culture professional communications leadership and ethics and eight weeks of hands on occupational field expansion training throughout the curriculum and emphasis is placed on decision making the employment of combined arms and maneuver warfare dr the curriculum contains approximately eighty percent of academic education and twenty percent dedicated to training the marine corps university provides oversight of the curriculum through its curriculum review board process challenges students to think critically in fact it is the first academic last sunday one curriculum provides them with a firm doctoral foundation augmented with outside readings guest speakers the exchange of experiences and reinforced with extensive practical application planning exercise program outcomes for e w s include the ability for graduates to express the isn't a well reasoned manner that stems from a discipline thought process they will be able to integrate the capabilities of each of the form elements of the marine air ground task force plan and execute naval expeditionary operations integrate the six war fighting functions with consideration to the principles of war maneuver warfare doctrine and cultural factors they will be prepared to command a company or operate as a technically proficient staff officer within their element of the mag to have they would know how to lead subordinates within a framework of ethical values at a fundamental level they will understand joint operations coalition operations the formation organization and purposes of the joint task force coordination with the interagency and non governmental organizations faculty consists of fifteen faculty advisors and a grade of major and three division heads in the grade of lieutenant colonel or commander one hundred percent of the faculty advisors and division heads or highly experienced combat veterans with great appropriate command and staff experience seven hold masters degrees from command staff college as well to more hold masters degrees from civilian universities and  u s instructor position is considered a premier and upwardly mobile billet for a marine corps major with many generals having once served on the faculty and staff the marine corps university faculty supports us with academic scholars and subject matter experts in the field of culture the middle east insurgency terrorism intelligence leadership and ethics historical case studies interagency coordination in our own faculty education two hundred forty two officers will attend the resident u s program an academic year two thousand and ten which includes one hundred ninety marines twenty two soldiers six airman sailors and twenty two international officers from twenty one countries two hundred thirty seven officers graduated  in two thousand and nine one hundred ninety one of them including our international officers operation iraqi freedom for operation enduring freedom combat veterans i anticipate that the student body for next month's incoming class will be some early experience  that as the first step in the marine corps university continuum e w s provides a solid foundation for the intellectual and professional growth of our officers expeditionary warfare school is a national treasure one whose modest budgetary requirements provide the very much mr chairman i appreciate this opportunity unfortunately have a conflict the questions would go on and on and on if i had the opportunity but let me just limit myself to just a few of my staff tells me that after six years of approximate figures born here in field and i appreciate that question and looking at our mission statement it is really about developing leaders of character for service or air force and to our nation alternately our mission statement in the past had in it to develop career air force officer and that really has not been our focus although during a four year program we hope that will instill within our future officers and identity an armed forces officer an air force officer there are several complicating issues i think with some of the figures  are for shaping throughout the years within the air force and for us our attrition figures at the ten year point might be higher in that over half of our graduates go on to pilot training and there's a ten year commitment whereas those who are going into other fields it's a five year commitment so you'll see some variation there ultimately we would hope that service in the air force they would want to they would get hooked on the mission and hooked on the people and obviously we love everyone to stay for a full career but that is not part of our current mission statements or i think you should be concerned about it we are concerned about it as well and it is an issue for us as a retention of our graduates we have about a fifty percent retention rate at the six year mark part of that is for the operational tempo of the army currently when you have a graduate who deploys three or four times in that six year period it's sometimes difficult to convince them when they're leaving their family behind all the time one of the things that we looked at and implemented a program in the last several years to work on this issue of retention beyond the five or six year mark is also related to things that the subcommittee is looking at and that's what we call our grad program as you probably know all graduates of the military academy incur a five year active duty service obligation in a three year commitment if they are willing at the time of graduation or just before graduation to instead sign up for eight years of active duty rather than five and three we will guarantee them graduate school at a graduate school of their choosing then they will go to graduate school incur additional commitment to the army which will take them past the twelve or thirteen year mark in the last we've done this program for the last three years and between that and signing up for a civic branch of the army you can do the same thing three years of additional active duty if you sign up for infantry for example if you want that branch where we have more than thirty three  percent of every graduating class of signed up for those options so we anticipate as we look to the future that those retention figures are going to improve dramatically as chairman scale may have similar dilemma as in terms of the pipeline and training wickets that we meet just as general borne described to you in the navy and specifically like a naval aviation for training but i will offer this the encouraging spirit that i see in our most recent classes at the naval academy and the young people that are committed to serving their nation i do feel that if we can capture that and indeed try to instill that continued inspiration in their hearts to serve their country in the future years i think we have some ground here to plow something that we've taken on at the naval academy recently as general fund again mention it west point our strategic imperative i can't speak for the entire neighborhood we are trying to do is go back to our alumni in the fleet assess what it is that exactly at that critical time in their in the r milestone career what is driving them out or keeping them in we have seen in our recent discussions with the bureau that we have a lot of people to do want to stay and i can't say that we're going to see that bow wave change dramatically but we do see encouraging  statistics i won't speak for them because i just keep inside the naval academy line but we are in talking to our law more than not now we're seeing them wanting to stay in the navy we did and some considerable understand strategic thinking and there but if you have three or four that are on the cutting edge i think that's a pretty good flash backwards to the young lieutenant that you since that you produce in your schools and i realize that's early in one's career but can you put your finger on those that just might be a strategic thinker and be a potential leader in that area and if so how would you recommend to your service to take care of that person and to guide their career so that that ability would be enhanced job board chairman skelton another great question sir that the programs that the service academies  have fundamentally are based upon a core curriculum that is balance between manatees and social sciences and engineering and basic sciences but just having that foundation of subject matter isn't enough to produce the strategic thinker that could have a conversation what we've tried to do is develop a program that is aligned with purposeful intentional development to meet students where they are and to help them reach their highest potential in all areas of the program we have stablished learning outcomes that are in the three major areas that i mentioned in my opening statement on knowledge skills and responsibilities and  those three main areas are followed up with nineteen learning outcomes that we have established at the institutional level for our entire program those outcomes are aligned with liberal education outcomes in america for citizens as well as the institutional competency list for our air force one of those air force competencies and also embedded in the higher education strategic thinking and what we've tried to do in the past were a course was enough to learn material is to link courses intentionally developmentally to hold students accountable from one year to the next in a developmental fashion and also to provide avenues for those that excel one of those examples is our academy scholars program where we identify very early medivac halfway through a four degree freshman's period of somebody who's an outstanding performer and we put them through more of a st john's accelerated more seminar based corps sequence and there with some of our most senior scholars they have other opportunities to go with that with participating in aspen institute developmental model each nation opportunities but we also we have a dead fact we're professionals who pick out people not just in the academic arena but those that will be leaders in their squadron or athletes and we also identify those to go to special developmental programs one of those for example is commander leader enrichment seminar which is an advanced leadership development opportunity for our leaders as well as our team captains so to answer your question it's more intentional in developmental to help students connect the dots to have more deep learning and effective learning for a very complex identify good thinkers and even great thinkers solve problems and that's really what we're trying to do is create going men and women who can solve problems that they haven't seen before we're not trying to teach them what to think but how to think and scholarship candidates early on identify them and channel them into particular programs into particular seminars we also have extensive summer program internships six hundred their intellectual capability to help them in the classroom i think you've touched on one of the issues that is sort of beyond what we can do and that is once we've identified these high achieving young people who've done very well at the academies and maybe been scholarship recipients or been in an academy scholar program what happens to them out in the force because they then go in the in the army circumstance of course they are the normal path and probably the required path and the right path is to go be a platoon leader in a company commander and do the kinds of things that they need to do in the army we have to some find a way to keep them connected to their intellectual development as well the same time that's something that the army must grapple with internationally speaking we want to provide that to all of them and once we've done that it is our our challenge and i know general finnegan just alluded to it a little bit we are very proud of our scholarship and graduate occasion midshipman as they graduate become ensigns and second  the challenge for us and i've talked about this the bureau personnel we want to ensure that we are mentoring them closely during that graduate cation process to ensure that when they are done and they've retained all the compliments and and strategic thinking they can absorb and  their professional careers we want to quickly as possible in an efficient and effective way to get them into their other major trading pipeline so we don't lose any time with them to keep them upwardly mobile that has been something in the past i don't know what the other services how they experience for that as a challenge for us and we've taken that on we're going to closely monitor those up with the mobile strategic thinkers that we've identified in the graduate occasion produce sure they are successful throughout their careers the very last is a request of you six years ago i put together recommended reading lists for military officers and for members of congress and it was well received over here at the national war college just a few days  compile recommended book last number to do and i will ask the staff and later moment to give you my list and if you have a few moments let me know that would you could critique my list for me for each of the five of you know to really appreciate it and tell me no tell me good bad or indifferent there on question first i'll come back later a specific question which is what avenues are there for you all make decisions about your student body your curriculum how you're doing what opportunities are for you or is it to choose to hear from the combatant commanders about how your forks are performing you know based on what they learned at us that they will start start with you brings a bunch of enhancements that are available to a nonresident student and i think that's the major difference there are graduates from a nonresident program that are parts of the times in squadrons but specifically we're after what can we do in house at the resident did they get what they were supposed to get out of it and then we get we take that feedback we rolled back into our curriculum development process sharon snyder we specifically use our op nav staff and our chief of naval personnel as our conduit to let them evaluate are we sending the right type of and sins and second lieutenants out into the fleet and disport the co comms so there is a formal requirements process that we served to that need that being said i will offer that not necessarily serve a kind of format but an actually demand single kind of format we have had the cocom come to us in the undergraduate level and say we would like to offer these kind of internships the naval academy to give them increased awareness and an early jump start on the kind of political military situations they might encounter or given a perfect example of hoedown in djibouti last summer came to us said we have a great idea we'd like to offer you twelve to twenty midshipman how would you like them to come down for a summer internship he said you bet can we make it work you bet as it turned out in the end had a great experience we're doing that again this summer i also offer to you that another kind of summer training we've had people go to internships in africa south com again these aren't exactly they're not asking are we meeting the scratching the itch they require right now of our young undergraduate level but it is a minimum they've come to us and said we have a demand signal to give this kind of undergraduate awareness cultural awareness geographic their i guess my answer combines probably kept in clunkers we have a system where we assess both at the battalion commander level and at the graduate level after two years and after five years we also work very  but probably more that we can do directly with combatant commanders informally we do get a lot of feedback and we currently this summer had one hundred of our cadets over in cent com or you know we've had seventy of our faculty deployed mostly to point and we met with our graduates while we were over there and got a sense from their perspective on how well prepared they were for the mission that they're facing there but we also have some formal assessment of our graduates at the four year point where we go out through our air force personnel center to assess all of our new accessions in the first four years of service as well as their supervisors commanders and the assessment is aligned with out of the combatant commands as well as our own major commands we're in the process right now of assessing our two thousand and eight data we do it about every three to four   and i want to thank all the members of the panel for joining us today taking time out are you busy schedules i want to kind of drill down a little bit on the chairman's questions he was asking about how you go about the evaluation process on the on your do you how do you know great that into the into the pre commissioning experience and then also how how do you take lessons learned in current conflicts and integrate that in so you're taking those requirements the real world efforts there and current current the evaluation sort of building that to the point and then obviously talk a little bit about the evaluation point i want to understand you know how you build that both on requirements and on taking experiences being learning current conflicts and integrating those together  assess what the call comes and specifically our navy and marine corps leaders want to requirements in their undergraduates that being said we have had a very effective academy effectiveness board we use that on and annually it assesses but it's actually meeting every month at our naval academy to assess our curriculum and then provide modifications to their curriculum as needed the most dramatic change recently was in ninety two and a half years ago in two thousand and six we actually created a little additional white space in our curriculum we reduced the number of credit hours by three so we can provide more flexibility in electives to respond to those type of her emerging threats and situations you might like to highlight also an aspect again because we report the op nav and specifically to the chief of naval personnel we are having just next week the timeliness of this question is perfect we're having our education curriculum review with all our graduate and undergraduate  institutions next week for the navy will meet we have priorities we establish with them in determine what type of curriculum modifications we might like to make so again we're getting ready to do that here in just the next week and we my  at the beginning of april and started in changes as a result of that at the beginning of may and what we've done is gone back and looked at all those higher headquarters requirements that i referred to in my opening remarks but we also have the opportunity to role in the experiences of our instructors as well because we're short courses one of the neat things that we can do i think is focus on what the students and instructors bring to the flight and the construct that we've got allows us to focus on the learning requirements that we we know what it is we're trying to accomplish in each element of the class but then the instructors bring their experiences to bear as well when we've got twelve to fourteen members in each of the flights especially for what an officer school but we've got there is forty seven year captains who a lot of times have been deployed once or twice and they've got that to bring to the discussion as well and one of the things that we have done is moved away from the set piece power point presentations where here's the learning objective and you just kind of counting the charts and maybe a little get a discussion at the end and call it a day to really open it up to where we are going more into the case study motive operations the guided discussions where the discussions really are led by the flight commander but we leverage the experiences of the students in there and to the same extent even though we don't have that experience base in aerospace basic course again we start with the requirements that we weave in the experiences of our instructors so we've got most of our military instructors are coming in after at least a tour maybe to a lot of them have deployed recently hired fifteen expeditionary skills instructors to do that training piece now almost all of them have been deployed and have some very unique experiences to share so half of what goes on in the field is just that interchange so that we can roll in is a tactical level school that touches on the operational we're very much responsive to the needs of the operating forces and chairman snyder's earlier question but the feedback we receive from the operating forces on whether we're getting all of the points that we need to at the course is really driven by the demands there how do we respond to that we have a current operating environment module that takes place every spring beauty of quantico is a co location of our school with marine corps university with the center for advanced operational culture as well as the marine corps lessons learned system is headquartered out of their immediate feedback from the lessons learned system as well as information that may be flown from helmand province or or still in anbar province will get worked into the current operating environment module to make sure that we're teaching relevant information that's going to arm and equip them soon as they walk out the door in may certainly the commandant's guidance gets that into our content review which goes at the end of the academic year and at the end of we have five major modules instruction at the end of each module there is a curriculum review that takes place as is there a comprehensive curriculum review at the end of the year that gets again approved by marine corps university for any major changes in curriculum combat performance or i with how do we best the needs of our air force and again i in the institutional competency list and also to receive a bachelor science degree with the liberal education foundation what kind of skills knowledge responsibility should  graduates have from a very macro perspective what we're trying to embrace in a defective efficient way is a learning focused culture learning organization which starts first with what is it that we're trying to achieve and then how do we go about what kind of program or lesson do we go about to embed that learning outcome then how do we assess the student getting it is our program delivering and then feedback to the system in order to adjust that learning activity or to adjust the program objectives overall so from a multiple level perspective all answer at our institution we also have an institutional effectiveness program that will look at whether or not we're achieving that loop and closing that loop we fortunately just received our accreditation and that's what they look at they look at what you say you are about as an organization to meet your customer's needs and are you effectively demonstrating that you're achieving that so that's one way but all the way down to the lesson level that same loop is involved and so instructors spend a lot of time and when you have seventy who deploy in a year they bring back that so what how do i embrace a learning activity that's going to achieve that strategic thinking more critical thinking outcome our curriculum process is very similar we have emerging recommendations on changes to close gaps that come through departments and their individual courses in the core curriculum but they also can come through our junior faculty form or through our faculty forum they can also come through from  language cultural awareness because that is clearly something that are army needs right now that are graduates  civilian significant number of them are actually retired military the report that came out several years ago largely for discuss that issue but doesn't seem to been any movement by the air force academy in terms of looking at that issue what's going on the question with regard to mix of the faculty and the larsen report we are ideal composition in response to the larsen report was twenty five percent civilian and seventy five percent military fact and we only have risen to about thirty civilian faculty and about a third of those faculty are retired military we've we've tried to hire nationally based on our advertisements in the chronicle of higher education and select the best qualified and we try not to in our process advantage military or disadvantage military retired military we haven't set a floor or a ceiling but we monitor to see the extent that our civilian faculty positions are retired military right now blend is a wonderful blend in terms of having the pure civilians many who have been with us since ninety two when they arrived which shows their tremendous commitment and dedication to the mission we have a nice blend with our military faculty who are providing a little bit more of the operational perspective and with the turnover that we have and i think arguably we probably matter fact i think we can demonstrate we have the highest rotation of faculty having a core of our civilian faculty as retired military actually helps us achieve our mission where they have a balance of both their military experiences as well as their advance scholarship when you make a comment you think that people should be advantage or disadvantage by being for military but i mean i'm not sure why not i mean if you make a decision that you want so many percentage to be civilian so they may come from a life of being a retired state department retired physician or work in third world countries or whatever i don't see that you're somehow drawing some line into some ethical line in the sand to say we want to blend of people who are cuts in what we call the institutional army and in an attempt to build up the operational army those forces are actually fighting the army's undergoing a total army analysis right now and it looks like we ma actually had some cuts already it is not final yet we're going to undergoing the process right now the army is trying to decide the latest news we have is that the cuts will not be severe but there will be some cuts in significant issues because one way to make up for some small military cuts to hire additional civilian fact that causes pressures on your budget because the largest part of my budget the budget is the hiring of and you referred to it in your written statement about the issue of laptops and i'm confused i think because i mean i would think that that's a pretty basic thing in an academic environment or some kind of teaching environment i remember when you series told me a story about years ago now and he made some speech about you know how there's going to be funding for did you go down once a week for an hour and they give you a pencil and your pencil for an hour that would hold you for that we are way past the point where we think that having a laptop computer for a student is a luxury should that be more important than a whole lot of other things that your schooling that you're over in your statement you only three of your fifteen compas groups are going to have laptops that's like saying a grade school kid thirty years ago forty years ago fifty years who didn't get a pencil isn't  some of the i mean how much total money you're talking about to get additional computers for twelve more comets groups in the money i think is out there through marine corps university or training education command part of our challenge right now is the infrastructure of the building in terms of being able to plug those computers in network that can support fifteen conference groups of sixteen students each fifteen to sixteen students each to be able to happen so what we need to do first is modernize the infrastructure the building where the money made is that come through through a training education command or marine corps university may want to staggered out over a period of two academic years we're going to have to see only because once the infrastructure starts to get late into the building it can become very disruptive to the ongoing  instruction we're trying to provide during the course of the academic year so we need to find how long is the project going to take it one of the best time to do it but i think the money's out there to actually make it happen it just seems like that's a pretty basic thing i came in when i was six or eight years ago  special ops sergeants who had done missions overseas you know it's going to be a bad day when you're microsoft outlook was open and i mean i thought it was that's kind of i don't think that was ever a line from a john wayne movie you know you know there's a way that we can help and i mean this seems like pretty basic stuff i mean when you're putting in a written statement to congress that you're proud of that we've got three of the fifteen with computers one that's as basic as a pair of boots there are guys going to feel i mean as basic as that i think mr w  integrity we have a robust character development program that really is a synergistic activity both for our kids but also for our permanent party we have a statement that says we really graduate  classes every year one of them is our obviously our second lieutenants entering into the air force and the other is our rotational faculty up to a quarter or a third that go back out into the operational air force and so the character development is for all and we also have an ethics across the curriculum thread that leads to that one outcome to have specific experiences for example we have for character development  four years that are graduation requirements and they're aligned with our officer development system which starts with focusing on personal development and then it goes to an interpersonal in terms of the that particular focus is on ethics and ethics on the battlefield one of the centerpieces of that is a battle command conference that we have each year and this past april we brought about three hundred  officers and c e o s back from the army mostly from very recently deployed about to deploy who spent two days two and a half days with all of our seniors talking them about small unit operations particularly the moral ethical aspects of those that are so it what we're doing now we also have it as an adjunct to that a robust law of armed conflict program that starts in their summer training before their sophomore year we're just undergone that we integrate problems into scenarios there we classroom instruction and and they continue to integrate that into our training aspects of  and it's clear that with my other panel members that this is absolute cornerstone of what we believe in at the service academy in their schools and i mean truly it is what sets us apart from other institutions in this great country of ours i will offer as a small anecdotal little piece that it's clear that the rest of the country is catching on to how important this is and what we do and how we lead young people in this this great world and that this last year we had a leadership conference of the naval academy and we had thirty three representatives from other institutions and civilian colleges and organizations around the country that attended that was a large number we've had ever so again we're very happy with that now particularly to our institution we find that it's not only an academic environment study we are clear in our for your development just like general borne describe it for your progress in the academic world but it's also something that we feel very strongly in the practical more o j t kind of environment what we teach in the academic classroom i must absolutely hear to in practice in the bancroft hall every day environment we lead people so that's my i own that and that's very near and dear to my heart i'm very passionate about honor integrity ethics it's something we stand for not only academic in o j t practical bring guest speakers from all over the country we have seminars we have senior mentoring i have a great very short story there's a young man that was having difficulty wasn't quite getting the picture on what it really meant inside here and up here we have seen your mentor to seventy general peter pace who's a gretchen graduate from my institution we said general would you like to take this one on and said you bet so we had a young midshipman talking to a senior four star marine general about mentoring it was a total success he got it and i but i offer that small example as will go to any lengths we can to try and inspire our young people in this kind of field again i know general finnegan's alluded to his center we have the stockdale center for ethical leadership this is hugely important to us and i think i'll leave it at that sir that's ok just tell you of the time they come into the space basic course is a lieutenant until the time they leave when asked for school as a captain in both courses and in the distance learning courses well we focus on the core values in particular in ethics specifically and in fact one of the things that we rely on to kind of guide how we emphasize that is the institution competency lists that the air force provides and therefore in particular for instance for tells air force officers how to act and we try to instill that throughout the entire course and the same is true but there is space basic course we try to talk to the young lieutenants about their distinctive roles  the standard that we hold them to talk to them and give them centrally situations case studies where they can talk about what it means to act in certain ways in certain situations so they have to actually think about it it's not just a one way dialogue from the instructor saying ok we all need to be ethical it really well i try to encourage them to do is think larger than themselves put themselves in the position of their supervisor their commander having to deal with a specific situation that's that's the model we're trying to go to where they have to think about the second and third order effects of their decisions so using that model we're trying to put that in place where each and every instance they can think about the ethical ramifications of any action if they take so regardless of the block of instruction we managed to weave that into most everything that we do with the guest speakers with the discussions of the case studies and we've been very successful great congressman women very much the same answer as the previous but you've heard the leadership in ethics one of the three subsets of what we call our professional studies program and that is threaded throughout the blocks of instruction throughout the year primarily we will use guest speakers we do have small group discussions mentored by the majors been into tactical decision making exercises primarily and also case studies this particular academic year want to will be the main major case study that students will get into on that but that's a situations we got some feedback to that not because of the atmosphere of your institution but because of where the air force or how the air force values these positions that there's some faculty members think that  some of the instructors what they think when they come in you get a different answer then when they when they leave so i think because they're coming from a position of ignorance for lack of a better term because they have not sure what they're getting into and they know if they're leaving their operational career track walking into a different environment one that they're not familiar with they're not sure the expectations are there's probably a little evidence on their part to dive in fully and if you ask them you know it's just going to be a help or hurt you're going to get an answer that's going to be different than when they leave and i think a lot of that is just to the fact that one is when they realize the impact that they make on an entire generation officers during their time as instructors that gives them a sense of satisfaction that they probably didn't anticipate when they got there the other thing is they have the same opportunities to excel in their position that they have everywhere else and i think once they've been there for a while they understand that essentially we operate as a small wing for lack of a better term i walked in there as a graduate and commander from vandenberg and that's kind of how we treat it we've got two schools that we treat as groups we've got a small number of folks that provide infrastructure and so we give them that same environment that they would see in the operational air force in terms of there may be some value and he may have already done is if there is that sense you know how the military is one big rumor mill and you want people to be applying for these jobs and be excited about being there and and so if there is a if there is an unjustified sense among a few of your faculty that it may be helpful to to deal with i want to ask for our three academy folks would you spend a minute each of you just talk about in terms of financial resources what role nonprofit foundations nonprofit graduates graduates which is our alumni association and they one of their main purpose is to do fund raising to supplement appropriated funds what we consider them to do is what we call the margin of excellence activities so they would fund raising that they do allows us to have for example some cadet clubs that we might not have using appropriated funds that organise the model u n debate team are funded largely through those private donations many of our overseas summer experiences are funded through private dollars we get some appropriated funds for that but many of them are bounded to the macarthur foundation and other fund raising it's done by  our fundraising arm the association so we just built a brand new library jefferson hall library learning center that had about sixty million dollars of appropriated funds but to enhance some of the architectural parts and some of the them to mean the net for the next year so again that's a good thing the expectation of the five zero one c three funds or in this case just as general funding instated the alumni association a foundation as we call it believe or not we use the exact same term the margin of excellence and what we've done there is to take those over and above requirements that we've established with our opn aben our personnel resource sponsors those things that will really give us that extra value earned of capacity in that global world the international world in many cases it goes to exactly general finnigan stated international travel international immersion programs things that we have great value for and we do get some appropriate dollars for i don't want to make it sound like this is all through five  one c three but they assist us in those meetings so we found that to be very very helpful in that regard obviously economic standing does impact that but we're very pleased again that our alumni association and foundation works very closely with us on a from we have several foundations that do contribute to allowing us to do some things that we aren't allowed or or or don't do with our appropriated funds the extra margin of excellence an example is we actually have an academy assembly program combination of appropriate funds but a majority from a gift in order to bring in top name speakers and cetera we have a lot of our programs that are in our athletic departments through our air force academy athletic association which i think contributes almost fifty percent of what we're able to do a lot of programs so it is an extra margin of excellence i think what all of us would say is similar to higher education we're seeing some reductions in endowments and so that extra margin of excellence or margin of excellence is going down and as you've heard from others some are experiencing appropriated downturns as well so that that will impact our programs but right news is really validated recently in our ten year accreditation because they do look at resources and are resourced to be accredited and to continue in the direction you are and and from that you are meeting your mission we've also added mission and i think we've taken on additional roles with regard to deployments and when you have seventy faculty members who deploy right now we have twenty eight deployed and thirteen of those are on three sixty five which is a four year deployment so that has an impact in terms of what you need in your authorisations in order to support something is also an important mission but it's an additional mission a lot of what we're doing also in terms of our character development programs who are doing our permanent party who are basically doing additional mission for the the right thing so we have a heavily worked back and i think there's a lot that moves into private time research is one of those that keeps an educational program rigorous and innovative and is a benefit to our students and i think a lot of the faculty are finding time to do that in their own time but we do a lot of grading and a lot of other things at home but the good news is we're meeting mission because we have the dedication of people who believe in the mission and who are dedicated to what we're working to accomplish we also there's an additional work i think all of us take on with regard to other requirements with the way that we streamed technology and that's a choice we've made in terms of doing our own travel and doing everything on line  and and and that's an additional we volunteered to participate in you know dorm patrol and do that so i think that there is additional mission and that we probably need to look internally at where we have high impact practices that are making a big difference and where do we need to prune a little from things that maybe aren't a central to achieving our mission and vision as we are actually starting to already work the budget process for air force in addition to looking at ways that we can streamline our own if efficiencies at the academy where that if you get something back build on it some kind of a formal mean compared to what you were doing before i was the most i mean that was a term of art learning focused environment matter i think we've always been in the business also of developing leaders character but what we've learned over the years is how people develop and how we can become more effective how we do that i would say that learning focus culture is somewhat very similar teaching and learning come from the same root word if you hold the word teach in a mirror is a reflection of learn but the difference is that it's really focused primarily on what is the student learning and teaching is a very important role in that but but it's  outcomes based and it's specifically out in a lesson or at the institutional level what is it we're trying to accomplish how are we going about accomplishing it what's our evidence that shows that we're accomplishing that mission and then how are we closing the loop and feeding that back into changing something because we've identified a gap or we've identified a best practice that we can capitalize on learning focus   many many years ago back when i was a young man in vietnam and i was not a grunt to be but one of my friends who was he said we just got so tired as marines watching all the army huey fly over and they'd make us walk you know the thing about equipment for the marine corps always been a shoe so i i think i'm probably reflecting one incident that happened to one of my friends forty years ago but maybe it would be helpful dr fenner why don't today this is july i will be back here after the first year in january sometime a third of fourth week of january when we plan on driving that want to go and do a computer count and we'll see how the infrastructure looks for we'll take along our laptops and see if we can get into your system formally or if you want to pick up the phone and just call the staff we would appreciate it but this is been help for that we are