DATE: Thursday, July 17, 1997               TAG: 9707170005

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion

SOURCE: BY JAMES J. TOONE 

                                            LENGTH:   59 lines

STAFF COLLEGE PERFORMS PRESCRIBED MISSION

``Staff college's role needs to be revisited, think tank suggests'' (news, July 8) was factual but incomplete. Both the article and the report released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) fail to recognize that the Armed Forces Staff College (AFSC) in Norfolk is performing the precise role that Congress mandated for it.

The fact that, in most cases, an officer may not be selected for the ``joint specialty'' designation until he/she completes a second phase of joint education at AFSC is linked directly to the fundamental recommendation of the Panel on Military Education of the House Armed Services Committee (Skelton Panel) that joint specialist education should be accomplished in a joint school.

By congressional definition, joint schools should have equal mixes (by military service) of both faculty and students and should be under the control of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff so that joint matters dominate the curriculum and joint viewpoints prevail.

The service schools do not meet these criteria, and to make them the primary source of comprehensive joint military education is not consistent with the spirit and intent of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 or the recommendations contained in the Skelton Panel report. Congress has consistently supported this view in public law, and it is Congress, not the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the services (as the CSIS report recommends) that will determine if there are any changes required in the role that AFSC plays in the education of joint specialty officers.

As it pertains to AFSC, the CSIS report is flawed in that it does not consider all the suggestions made by the panel on military education that advised General Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Specifically, the panel suggested the establishment of a ``benchmark'' joint intermediate command and staff course at the college to augment its existing mission. The panel also proposed establishing an advanced joint studies program at AFSC which was similar in concept to the advanced studies programs at the service schools.

Both of these suggestions appear to be consistent with congressional intent that AFSC be the premier school for teaching joint operations and that AFSC serve as a gateway for entry into joint specialist assignments.

Should Congress decide to revisit the role of AFSC, these two suggestions will serve as much better starting points than the recommendation to give the service schools the primary responsibility for educating joint specialty officers.

Since the Skelton Panel report was published in 1989, U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., has visited AFSC on four separate occasions. The purpose of his most recent visit, in February 1996, was to review implementation of the recommendations contained in the Skelton Panel report.

At the conclusion of the two-hour briefing, Mr. Skelton remarked, ``I am really pleased. You are way ahead of where I thought you'd be. You all have earned an A-plus for your efforts.'' MEMO: Retired Navy Captain Toone is director of the Directory of

Educational Technology at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk. His

views do not necessarily reflect the views of the AFSC.

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