Squadron Officer School - Cogito Yearbook (Montgomery, AL)

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,-,...-- tw er M er . mg i T' 1 ii QT, tm t . ,.... Ri is T .ar ,112 i me os we ' was M lated condition the officers organize and execute the Long- Range Bombardment Exercise - a detailed problem in- volving the handling of long-range strategic forces. This is followed by anAir Defense Exercise which requires the officers to developtheir own organization and use weapons assigned to them in such a way as to defend a specific section of the United States. Once they have planned their defense through the location of equipment at their disposal,we run,using our public address system, a simu- lated attack on this area by enemy forces. Officers now see clearly why they must improve their ability to commu- nicate and to be leaders as they enact their roles in the various command and staff positions. At the conclusion of this exercise, their procedures and conclusion are analyzed and evaluated by the instructor. Thus far, the officer has been working with potentially realistic problems of today. The course is concluded by QQ all officers participating in a problem of a theoretical nature. We ask our officers to plan an air force which will be effective ten years in the future. This conceptual thinking seminar forces the officer to use all of his know- ledge in each area and to carefully and creatively think of what our nation will need ten years from now in order to defend the free world from militant, aggressive forces. Thus our curriculum is built on awhole-part-whole con- cept, emphasizing relationships of the various parts to each other and to the whole by means of integrated sched- uling.Throughout the course numerous checks are provided so the officer and the staff can evaluate the learning in problems ranging from simple, simulated exercises, through complex, simulated, potentially realistic exercises to the theoretical--the conceptual thinking seminar. X,

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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-

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x 81. l .v-F AEROSPACE EMPLOYMENT Attention RAMROD Battle Staff! Attention RAMROD Battle Staff! Powerful enemy bomber forces that earlier penetrated the Distant Early Warning Line in the Arctic have now begun to cross the Mid-Canada Line. Lead ele- ments of the bomber forces have been contacted by inter- ceptors of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The interceptors attempted to divert the bomber aircraft but were fired upon. Canadian interceptors are now making concentrated attacks against the raid and report several enemy bombers have been destroyed. The bulk ofthe force appears to be head- ed for RAMROD Division. Alert all defense systems and weapons within your division. Engage the enemy with your most effective weapons and eliminate this raid as soon as possible. Good hunting. These harsh wards blurt out of the intercom set in your seminar room at the Squadron Officer School. No one stirs. You see the same strained expression on every face around you. This is it! Automatically each of the dozen other men in the room turn. They turn to you. Because today, you, Captain Joe Jones, are the Air Defense Sector Commander. This is your problem, this is your staff. No one for you to turn to now. Successor failure depends on you and your men. Can this be true? Can you, Joe Jones, 29-year old Pennsylvania native turned Air Force officer, specialist in aircraft maintenance, be commander in such a critical national situation? Can any school in a short l2 weeks of a l4-week course prepare you to make decisions of such magnitude and grave consequences? You wonder. In that split second before you bark out your first instruction to your staff, the past 12 weeks unfold before your eyes. You now see the why and wherefore of it all. It was all for this. To see that your first order, as well as your last, was the very best that could have been given under the circumstances. Not only were those lessons and practice sessions on clear thinking, clear writing, and clear speaking invaluable during the last two days - days spent designing RAMROD Aerospace Defense facilities from scratch - but now at the execution stage, you know you don't dare be fuzzy in either thought or word. And the thought strikes you suddenly that you wouldn't have as much as a map onthe wall if you and your mates couldn't function together smoothly as a command-staff team. The wide range of knowledge you now have from gaining an insight into the supply iob, the personnel iob, the communications-electronics iob, the operations job, and all the many other distinct functions of the modern aerospace force has enabled you to piece together a cle- fense system from masses of unrelated material, data, and facts. a -f , ,X H. A .L '4 2 i-gg ,f N, , , Sgfxkk, X . Q t Hi- '