Thomas E. Ricks
has a scathing
blurb @ Foreign Policy that makes a quick case for closing the Air War College to save money:
In a chapter in a collection titled Military Culture and Education
, Hughes, a military historian specializing in the German military, charges that, "By and large, there are no real academic standards."
The Air Force routinely uses the college faculty, he charges, as a dumping ground for "colonels who are out of favor." Hughes, who served in Vietnam and went on to earned his PhD at the University of North Carolina, says they are not very good academically. "Many are of average intellect and have substantial weaknesses in speaking and writing. . . . They rarely publish." During his years there, not a single faculty member ever was promoted to brigadier general , he notes. The department chairs are particularly troubling, with little understanding of the differences between leading a military unit and overseeing an academic department. "They are truly amateurs."
Nor are the student contributions impressive . Most are there only to check a block necessary for promotion, he says. "The Air War College may be the only full-time graduate school in the country in which a large part of the student body does not wish to be present." He says the students don't read the assigned material, which is not a heavy load. Even so, in 2009, the college's war fighting department awarded grades of "A" or "A-" to 97 percent of the students in its core course. The following year, the dean required that no more than half of grades be "A" or "A-."
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Tom's bottom line: Hughes says it costs at least $300,000 a year to send an officer to the AWC. So this looks like a good place to begin budget cuts, Secretary Gates. Close the place and send the students out into the world of civilian academia, where they will be challenged intellectually and might learn something.
