Military Review English Edition March-April 2014 | Page 53

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The Criticality of
Captains’ Education

(PHOTO: U.S. Army)

Now and in the Future—An Update
Lt. Col. Keith R. Beurskens, U.S. Army, Retired

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HIS ARTICLE UPDATES the November-December 2010 Military Review article
by William M. Raymond Jr., Keith R. Beurskens, and Steven M. Carmichael, “The
Criticality of Captains’ Education: Now and in the Future.”1 Significant changes have occurred across the Army since 2010; nonetheless, the education of captains remains a critical component of leader development of the officer corps. The major conclusions of the
original article are still relevant today and into the near future, principally that the Captain’s
Career Course (CCC) is essential to developing critical and creative thinkers who are agile
and adaptive enough to address complex problems.

The Army Leader Development Strategy and the Army
Learning Model
The Army Leader Development Strategy 2013 (known as the ALDS) was published with
the signatures of the sergeant major of the Army, chief of staff of the Army, and secretary
of the Army.2 The ALDS establishes the ends, ways, and means for rebalancing the three
crucial components of training, education, and experience across the operational, institutional, and self-development domains of leader development. The ALDS describes leader
development as—
…the deliberate, continuous, and progressive process—founded in Army values—
that grows Soldiers and Army Civilians into competent, committed professional leaders of character. Leader development is achieved through the career-long synthesis
of the training, education, and experiences acquired through opportunities in the
operational, institut