A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

178 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
industry. Many college graduates remain in the functional jobs and at the
same level for which they were hired—specialist engineers, lawyers, scientists,
accountants, or salesmen—throughout their careers. A few people in
corporations or nonprofits do rise higher, but there is no expectation that
they will do so. In the military, there is.
Every officer can aspire to be a general (or admiral in the navy) and
is given the training to enable this promotion to happen, even though it
is recognized that only a very small percentage will actually reach these
highest of ranks. Similarly, every enlisted rank is given the necessary
training to reach the highest non-commissioned officer ranks, even
though only a small percentage can achieve this goal. And, as noted, the
mechanism is in place to permit significant numbers of soldiers or
sailors to seek commissions and become officers. Why not? If they have
the ability, they have been given the necessary training since the day they
donned a uniform.
In the military, all are exposed to re-occurring training, upgrading
training, advanced training, and professional military education. These
types of training vary dependent on the service, military specialty, career
path, and other factors. However, the training is ongoing, required, and
merges into a system of higher military education. While no career is identical
even in one service, including <strong>with</strong> respect to training, the first eleven
years of my own U.S. Air Force career provides at least an example.
CASE IN POINT: MY MILITARY TRAINING
I graduated from West Point <strong>with</strong> a BS in engineering. This is nominally an
Army school, but I was commissioned in the Air Force. A small number of
graduates from any of the three commissioning academies are allowed to
switch services, army to air force, air force to navy, etc. I was immediately
sent to attend primary basic navigation training (11 months), advanced
navigation radar navigator training (9 months), B-52 ground and flying
training (5 months), and survival school (1 month). I then reported for
duty at my first assignment, a heavy bombardment wing. Nowadays, all
newly commissioned officers take a basic airpower course lasting several
months before receiving specialized training in the Air Force.
During the next five and a half years of my first assignment, I was sent
to two advanced courses for air to ground missiles, each course lasting several
days. I was encouraged to begin graduate school at night and completed
half a dozen courses toward a master’s degree. I was required to complete