The Civilian-Military Gap and Professional Military Education at the Precommissioning Level

In: Armed forces & society, Volume 27, Issue 2, p. 249-272

Abstract

This article addresses whether there is a "gap" between the attitudes and perspectives of military students (at the military academies and at colleges with Reserve Officer Training Corps [ROTC] detachments) and students at civilian colleges. It is a limited study in that only three sets of student attitudes were examined, which were those pertaining to American society and its culture, military professionalism, and civil-military relations. The authors conclude that there is no significant gap between the attitudes and perspectives of military students in precommissioning undergraduate education and graduating seniors in civilian institutions. Rather, they were struck overall by the relatively high degree of similarity in responses. They also found a remarkably similar understanding of military professionalism, but, unfortunately, serious misunderstandings about proper civilmilitary relations on the part of both groups of students. Recommendations are proposed to correct the deficiencies noted in precommissioning professional military education.