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OR over a decade the Air Force Academy has taken pride in the effectiveness with which it has fulfilled its mission of providing "instruction, experience and motivation to each cadet so that he will graduate with the knowledge, character, and qualities of leadership essential to his progressive development as a career officer in the United States Air Force." This effectiveness has been clearly evidenced by the performance of USAFA graduates in their varied service assignments, most conspicuously in Vietnam. Their record of dedication to service is one which could well serve as a goal for future Academy graduates.

Many factors have contributed to the Academy's success. Certainly the efforts, ability, and example of its personnel have been consistently outstanding. The Academy's curriculum has also played an important part in preparing our cadets for the intellectual, physical, and moral demands of an Air Force career. Unfortunately, the relationship between the Academy's curriculum, particularly the academic program, and its mission has been widely misunderstood, both within and outside the Air Force. Concern has occasionally been expressed that there may not be a proper balance between intellectual and nonintellectual emphasis in the Academy's total program; that the content of the academic program does not relate to the Academy's mission and the preparation of career officers; that the academic majors prepare graduates for civilian careers rather than military careers; and that the enrichment program puts pressures on cadets at the expense of other

Brigadier General William T. Woodyard, USAF, former Permanent Professor and Head of the Department of Chemistry, USAFA, is now Dean of the Faculty. He succeeded Brigadier General Robert F. McDermott, who retired on 1 August 1968. The present article was written while General McDermott was still Dean.

The Editor

Academy programs, making development of the "whole man" difficult or impossible. The Academy's record clearly negates the validity of these allegations, but their persistence indicates that the true record has not been widely or successfully publicized. A brief look at the academic program's objectives, content, and results will, in my view, do much to clarify what the Academy's faculty is attempting to achieve and how well we have accomplished our goals.

The program which the Academy has established to accomplish its objectives and mission is purposefully designed to challenge each cadet to develop his intellectual, physical, and leadership capabilities to the maximum. It is a program which requires the best from a well-rounded and competent individual, a young man who has the potential to meet the demands of a rapidly changing profession of arms. The great number and high quality of talented young men in the United States who show some measure of aspiration to attend a service academy have been established by many surveys. For example, in 1960 a five percent survey of high school students in 1353 schools throughout the country showed that the service academies as a group attracted the top male talent in the nation in terms of general academic aptitude, scientific aptitude, and leadership potential.1 Another survey of approximately 120,000 high school juniors conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation over the period 1961-63 indicated that the Air Force Academy ranked 24th as the top choice of the male students. It is significant that the Air Force Academy was the only school founded in the twentieth century listed among the top 25 ranked schools. In a later ranking (published in November 1966) of 1629 schools by 400,000 males taking the National Merit Scholarship Tests the Air Force Academy had climbed to seventh place. Furthermore, the Air Force Academy ranked sixth among the 140,000 so-called high-ability males in this total group of 400,000.

The validity of the Academy's interest in candidates with high ability is proved empirically in the performance of its graduates. This validation will be discussed at length

later. At this point it is sufficient to say that the Air Force Academy does attract and does enroll some of the top talent graduating from the nation's high schools each year.

The challenges which the Air Force Academy offers to match the talents of its cadets may be considered under two headings: the formal program of instruction and the cadet way of life. The latter includes such features as the honor system, the conduct system, the aptitude system, compulsory chapel attendance during the first three years, a high degree of self-governance, leadership experience through the Cadet Wing organization, and a multitude of extracurricular and recreational activities.

The formal program of education and training may be described as evenly balanced between the academic program, which totals 2375 contact hours over four years, and the military training and athletic programs, which total 2325 contact hours over four years. This indication of balance, however, is somewhat misleading for two reasons: first, study hours are not included for the recitation courses in either the academic program or the military training program; second, many of the courses in the academic program are professionally oriented to such an extent that as a group they clearly constitute what could be labeled a major in military arts and sciences.

The academic curriculum's total of 146 semester hours is closely comparable to the number of semester hours usually taken to meet the undergraduate requirements for the engineering profession; but the content differs markedly in that the military profession requires fewer hours in science and engineering and more hours in the social sciences and humanities. The Academy cadet must take a minimum of 54% semester hours of social science and humanities courses and 501⁄21⁄2 hours of basic and engineering science courses to complete his core curriculum requirements.

The Academy curriculum is also scheduled differently from that of most engineering schools. Since the cadet's schedule must accommodate some military training and physical education in addition to academic courses during the academic year, the Academy

spreads the load over four 38-week academic years, rather than the traditional 33- or 34week academic year, in order to maintain a reasonable semester-hours-per-week load for the cadet. As a result of the longer semester, the cadet takes slightly less course work per week than his counterpart enrolled in the engineering schools at Purdue and Wisconsin, for example.

The Academy's academic curriculum consists of a core curriculum of 105 semester hours, which includes both general education and professional education courses, and electives totaling 41 semester hours, which provide an opportunity for each cadet to pursue an academic major in a limited area. Like many other institutions of higher education, the Academy has further individualized the curriculum through the offering of advanced and specialized courses in its enrichment program.

The general education portion of the academic core curriculum is designed to acquaint the student with the major areas of knowledge-the biological sciences, the physical sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences. The purpose of this part of the curriculum is the intellectual preparation of the cadet, as a man and as a citizen, through courses in the liberal arts and sciences, which are focused on the study of nature, the study of man, and the study of society. The importance of this general education has been emphasized by several advisory groups since the Academy's conception. The 1950 report of the Service Academy Board, for example, cited the reasons for a general undergraduate education for all career officers:

Professional military knowledge alone will not suffice to solve the problems of modern war. In the last war, officers of the armed services often became engaged in pursuits other than purely military which required a general educational background. Graduates of the Service Academies as they progress to positions of high responsibility in the military establishment will have an increasing range of contacts among leaders in civilian life, both at home and abroad. The complexities of modern war require large numbers of officers to undertake postgraduate studies. The Board,

therefore, considers it essential that a graduate of a Service Academy should have a background of knowledge comparable to that possessed by graduates of our leading universities. His field of knowledge, therefore, should include the arts and sciences in addition to professional military subjects.

The professional education portion of the academic core curriculum builds upon the major areas of knowledge studied in the general education courses. Thus, basic knowledge, ideas, and modes of thought derived from a study of philosophy, psychology, history, economics, and government lay a foundation for the professionally oriented courses in military history, leadership, law, economics of national security, defense policy, geography, and international relations. Similarly, study of the basic disciplines in mathematics, chemistry, physics, and human physiology is followed by engineering courses that provide an understanding of the technological basis of Air Force weapon systems. These prerequisite engineering courses include mechanics, electricity, and engineering fundamentals followed by prescribed professionally oriented courses in electronics, aeronautics, and astronautics.

The Academy offers every cadet an opportunity to earn an academic major. Approximately 30 percent of the academic credit hours required for graduation are allocated for this purpose. The majors program is consistent with the practice of almost all institutions of higher learning in the United States, to give the student an opportunity for exploration in some limited area of study. However, the majors offered by the Academy are generally restricted to those which relate to the military profession and, for the most part, to career fields of specialization within the Air Force. The cadet voluntarily selects his own major from among 27 majors currently offered. Approximately 55 percent of the cadets pursue majors within the fields of science and engineering. The other 45 percent of the cadets pursue majors in the social sciences and humanities, including approximately 15 percent in management. The majors program not only is tailored to the needs of the Air Force but also serves to individualize the curriculum in

One of our academic innovations in service academy education is the curriculum enrichment program, which was formally established in 1956. Its objective is to challenge each cadet to advance academically as far and as fast as he can. The enrichment program takes into account the differences in ability, preparation, and interest of the cadets and offers each one a challenge to live up to his potential in the pursuit and achievement of academic excellence. It is a challenge and opportunity to the mentally gifted cadet analogous to the challenge and opportunity that our intercollegiate athletic program offers to the physically gifted cadet.

Cadets participate in the enrichment program in one or more of four ways. Those who have attended a college may be granted transfer credit and replace core courses with more advanced substitutes or move core courses forward so that they may begin taking elective courses earlier in their programs. If a cadet has taken college-level courses in high school or preparatory school, he may take advanced placement tests for the award of validation credit. Some gifted cadets are given the opportunity to accelerate their study in mathematics and chemistry. Finally, a cadet who achieves a B average or better may choose to take an extra elective over and above a normal semester load. During any given semester approximately three-fourths of the cadets participate in the enrichment program in one or more of these ways, with about one-third taking overloads.

For especially well-prepared and motivated cadets, particularly those with prior college preparation, the enrichment program extends the opportunity to accelerate meeting the undergraduate requirements and to take graduate-level courses in the First Class year. Since we do not offer master's degrees at the Academy, we have worked out cooperative programs with six civilian universities. A cadet in one of these programs takes the equivalent of one full semester of graduate study while here at the Academy. These are true graduate-level courses taught by our own

degree requirements of the cooperating graduate institutions. Following graduation from the Academy the cadets selected for these programs proceed to the civilian institutions and enroll for summer session and fall semester (or fall and winter term) courses. After completing their programs and earning their master's degrees around February following their June graduation from the Academy, they report to their first military assignments. Most of them go on to flying training, armed with an advanced academic degree and only seven or eight months behind their classmates. About 10 to 12 percent of the graduates each year are selected for participation in one of these programs.

Another challenge for our most talented cadets is the competition for national and international scholarships and fellowships. Nominees for these scholarships are selected by the Academy's Graduate Scholarship Committee on a whole-man basis, and the winners are representative of some of the top talent graduated from the Academy. The success of Academy cadets in competing for these scholarships and fellowships can be seen from the following table: