Teaching Joint Doctrines in the Non-Resident Professional Military Education Environment

All services provide professional military education (PME) to both resident and non-resident students. The Goldwater-Nichols Act directs the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) to enhance the education and training of officers in joint matters. The CJCS established the Officer Professional Military Education Policy (OPMEP) requirements to direct service schools to teach joint doctrine and joint operations within the PME curricula. Service schools are meeting the minimum OPMEP requirements in an environment of continuous high paced operations (OPSTEMPO). Currently, non-resident joint training and education is limited to reading textbooks about jointness. What is required is an opportunity for interactive joint training and education. The Air Force's solution for the future is distance learning. Distance learning is an excellent teaching method. However, it is deficient in providing the opportunity for students, enrolled in the non-resident correspondence and/or seminar program, to interact and learn from the other services. The other services provide this opportunity to their non-resident students to prepare them not only for joint assignment, but also to fill ad hoc Joint Task Force (JTF) staffs. This type of ad hoc staff is more prevalent in today's Department of Defense. As the Air Force moves toward the Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) concept its challenge is to provide qualified officers trained and educated through the non-resident program to work in joint staff positions and on ad hoc JTFs. The Air Force can provide this interaction through a short course for non-resident students. This course will expose the students to joint lectures and direct interaction with the other services. Students will have face-to-face interaction with students and faculty from sister services in lecture and seminar formats. This paper details the history of the service schools' current non-resident requirements and curriculum plans. Highlights include how the Air Force mee