Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 72

in the theory and practice of strategy, operations,
national security, resource management, and responsible command.”10 The Department of Command,
Leadership, and Management offers core and elective
courses in strategic leadership, defense management,
and command.11 This department teaches two of the
five core curriculum courses in the resident program.12
Neither Strategic Thinking nor Strategic Leadership
mentions communication in its course description.
Further, looking at the full curriculum published by
the U.S. Army War College Department of Distance
Education, none of the courses in the required curriculum mentions “communication” in its course description.13 A single elective—Strategic Communication:
Wielding the Information Element of Power—mentions communication.14 This elective course, however,
concerns strategic communication in the context of
foreign relations rather than leadership.
The U.S. Army Command and General Staff
College (CGSC) catalog provides a mission, a philosophy, principles, a vision, and strategic priorities.15
Unfortunately, none of these expressly mentions communication. The college’s Advanced Operations Course

(AOC) curriculum includes one leadership course
in both the core and advanced operations portions.
Together, the core AOC courses include twenty-four
blocks totaling forty-eight hours of instruction. Of
these twenty-four classes, only two mention communication in their course descriptions: once in L100,
Leadership—Developing Organizations and Leaders;
and once in L200, Leadership. As with the Army War
College, there is no core course requirement for a
communication-specific course, or a writing or public
speaking course.
The U.S. Army Cadet Command manages the
Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, the
largest source of commissions in the Army. The Cadet
Command “selects, educates, trains, and commissions
college students to be officers and leaders of character
in the Total Army” and “instills … values and a sense
of accomplishment … .16 The ROTC program accomplishes this mission through a four-year program of instruction in “basic military skills, [and] the fundamentals of leadership.”17 Of these four years of instruction,
only one course during the sophomore year expressly
includes communications.

(Photo by Sgt. Gene A. Arnold 1st infantry Division PAO)

Sgt. Jared Wallfrom, 5th Engineer Battalion, 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, provides a presentation on the
specific capabilities of military working dogs 5 October 2010.
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July-August 2015  MILITARY REVIEW