Squadron Officer School - Cogito Yearbook (Montgomery, AL)

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l ie-v ,fx ,,.,,i ACADEMICS The Squadron Officer School's basic philosophy is educating the whole man in the mental, physical, and ethical areas. Generally speaking, we approach the course from the whole-part-whole concept, that is, we take a broad general look at a single whole area, next we break the area into small workable segments to learn specific facts, principles, and relationships, and finally we return to the whole area and fit the newly acquired knowledge and relationships together in reforming a new whole. The communicative skills area serves well to illustrate this whole-part-whole concept. Officers look at the broad art of communicating. Next they look at the use of,ver- bal symbols and how they cause an inter-action between the communicator and the receptor. At this time, context, abstraction level, differences in meaning, aids to com- munication, and other factors that affect communication are learned and understood. Officers then practice using their knowledge through a series of speaking and writing exercises. All of this is placed into the larger, integrated whole as the officer uses his knowledge and skills in leadership exercises, seminars, and finally in three com- mon crisis employment exercises. At this point the overall time-phasing of the curricu- lum plays an important part.We have an integrated program

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'wjill magma? Y. . ' 'T F :swag ,i I '....f g 4 To effectively utilize his authority, one of the first things a young officer must learn is how to logically arrive at and support a decision. Contained in the com- municative skills area of instruction is an analysis of logic, involving both the inductive and deductive ap- proaches. Specific emphasis is placed upon the deductive approach commonly known as the scientific method for solving problems. After our students learn the phases necessary to obiectively solve a problem and withhold their iudgment until many factors have been carefully considered, we present them with a simple but realistic problem to solve. The instructor carefully analyzes the procedures used and passes judgment on the quality of their solution. From this point on the officer gains experience through solving ever increasingly complex problems. At first the instructor leads a number of of- ficers through this problem solving process. Soon, how- ever, officers are selected to lead their colleagues fsm. , .., .influx l ' w f. v ' ' . uv VJ X i ner ,L i xref. .- ' - w-h 'T'wn...,,, -Q4 .fl through the process necessary to solve a simulated but realistic problem. About half way through the course the officers are given a highly complex problem--organizing a missile wing. This problem is student-led and involves the principles previously learned in communicative skills, leadership, and Air Force organization. The instructor carefully analyzes the procedure followed, and the solu- tion is compared with an acceptable solution developed by our staff and taken from a similar organization pres- ently existing in our European command. The complexity of the problems increases further until the 'l0th week when officers use all the skills they have learned in moving and employing forces assigned to the Tactical Air Command from the United States to some pre- determined trouble spot on another continent. This tactical show of force is met by enemy countermoves and the situ- ation ultimately develops into general war. ln this simu-