A Comprehensive Officer 'Sabbatical' Program: Re-Thinking the Military Officer Career Path

ISBN: 1288820925

Author: Gerlach, James M

Condition: New

The military needs to retain the best officers and maximize the skills and abilities of these officers to achieve the more proficient and professional officer corps required in the modern, complex operating environment. This AY-09 USAWC Resident student author argues that due to limited opportunities for formal and informal education outside the military environment, changing demographics within the greater military family, difficulty competing with characteristics of the civilian workforce and a growing civil-military cultural gap, the military has not successfully maximized the quality, proficiency and professionalism of its officer corps. He proposes a comprehensive sabbatical program requiring military professionals, at certain junctures in their careers, to take a hiatus from military service for a two or three-year period to pursue an education, start a family, work in the civilian labor force or otherwise pursue life outside the military before returning to the military to resume their career.