COAST. I ARTILLERY JOURNAL, - Air Defense Artillery

EDITORIALS
The Education of an Officer
THE military education of an officer in the Army begins with the
receipt of his first commission, or even earlier, and continues,
essentially without interruption, until he doffs permanently the uniform
of his country. That he should be a student to the very end of his
career is essential, for, as he climbs the ladder of military hierarchy,
his duties change, his responsibilities enlarge, and his field expands.
The details of his earlier days are, one by one, transferred to other and
younger officers, and he slowly, perhaps laboriously, advances to a
higher command.
During the long years of his service the officer, of necessity, reads
and studies a tremendous number of books on military and technical
subjects. In the schools he attends, in his recurring periods as a
teacher, in the routine of his daily duties, books are everywhere thrust
upon him. Regulations and manuals and text books and reference
works and technical volumes, almost without end, virtually surround
him. It is with hesitation that one suggests that he voluntarily add
more bO'oksto his already long list, and yet, since most of us seem to
require a stimulus to study, such a suggestion appears necessary.
The reading normally required of an officerto enable him to keep
ai:lreastof his routine duties and of the requirements of his special and
general service schools is restricted almost entirely to the field of
military science and its technical application. He may make occasional
slight excursions into the field of military art, but these are infrequent
and unordered. Following a natural tendency, he postpones the study
Df military art until he reaches his high command or, perhaps, enters
the War College. It is then too late to take up the subject in a logical,
well-ordered manner. The best he can hDpe to do is to consider, in a
limited and probably hurried fashion, a few of the many phases of
military art.
Military science, unlike military art, begins with the minutire of
military service. Its foundation is laid in the smallest of details. Drill
of the soldier without arms lays the way for instruction in tactics;
routine duties in company supply introduce the subject of logistics;
and the details of company and garrison duty constitute a preliminary
training in technic. From these basic details the system gradually
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