...well, you're paying for it...

Commander Salamander Substack

When should we send—while being paid a government salary—officers to graduate school?

What majors would best meet the needs of the service and its priorities?

Should graduate school degrees really be of importance for career advancement?

Why? Where? When?

One thing I have changed my mind on over the last decade, and especially the last five years, is the value of sending active duty officers to graduate school.

I’ve never been very keen on the “Straight from Annapolis to Grad School Pipeline” approach—as there is no better thing for an ENS/2LT to do than go to sea—and I haven’t seen a great cost/benefit ratio from all the Rhodes Scholars we’ve seen through the years, etc.

If someone wants to get a masters, full-time or part-time, first shore duty is a great time to do this. The concern from the system was how our system could hurt people with a few years of non-competitive FITREPs. We still don’t do all that well with non-traditional career paths. It can be done, but you have to hit all the other gates just right.

A lot of people did like I did: I got my masters while on shore duty across town from a state university. Working full time and going to school full time was a challenge, but in your 20s its doable. I know people who got PhDs (from real universities) the same way. It can be done. For me that meant giving up 49 of 52 weekends a year for a couple of years and almost all the spare time on evenings…but it was worth it. Not just the degree, but being the only military person in the classes I took was invaluable to gather perspectives from other industries.

That experience made me wish I could’ve attended a top university full-time, instead of balancing the best available university with a full-time job…but in the end it didn’t matter.

I know some who got masters from the pay-for-play universities. I did not care all that much for the online/remote/value graduate programs from universities that don’t really exist. That’s kind of cheating the system a bit, but that is on them. At least I can go to baseball games and root for both my undergrad and grad schools.

I got an MBA back in the 1990s when the Navy wanted officers to get an MBA. Some of it translated to the Navy, but again, I paid for everything out of my own pocket as I planned on getting out.

Oops.

Today, there are more options to get a degree. While digging around on a different topic, I was reminded that there are a whole host of them for Annapolis grads right after graduation.

Never begrudge a Shipmate a good deal, but is that the right time? Who benefits the most? The person, the university, or the Navy?

Let’s look at that for a bit and then I’ll let you ponder if this is the highest and best use of the intellectual capital the U.S. Navy has already invested in. What value will it bring to the fleet?

Let’s look at one of the many options out there for recent USNA grads. There may be some for NROTC grads, but I’m not aware of them.

Have you heard of the The Calcagno Scholarship?

The Calcagno Scholarship awards funding for immediate graduate education to aspiring leaders from the US Naval Academy who demonstrate their distinct voice & critical lens to challenge norms, innovate with new tools & novel approaches, and dedicate their scholarship to fostering equitable human flourishing & tangible societal advancement.

The scholarship funds immediate graduate study—domestic or international—for newly commissioned Naval Academy graduates. Open to diverse fields, it supports those who challenge convention, pursue bold ideas, and commit to building a more just and inclusive world through their scholarship and service.

It was founded, and named after, a recent USNA graduate. You can read his CV if you wish, but it isn’t about he/him.

It appears that it has been running for the last five years, with one scholarship awarded each year.

Shall we review what our Ensigns will bring back to our Navy from their studies?

By years:

• 2025: U.S. Naval Academy ‘25, Cambridge University ‘26
  • USNA degree: Pure Mathematics
  • Area of study at Cambridge: “…the role of social connection in mental and physical health, aiming to use her research to create programs that enhance community support for military personnel at every stage of their career.”
• 2024: U.S. Naval Academy ‘24, Harvard University ‘26
  • USNA degree: Unknown, but selected for submarine duty
  • Area of study at Harvard: Masters in Public Policy with a focus on, “Queer military studies, a topic largely unexplored in academia, is the forefront of her interests. … exploring how queer service members influence military policy at large.“
• 2023: U.S. Naval Academy ‘23, University College London ‘24
  • USNA degree: English
  • Area of study at UCL: “MA in Health Humanities…His research focuses on literary trauma theory and representations of mental illness, specifically focusing on how structural influences can perpetuate the infliction of trauma and psychological injury…examining sociocultural influences which affect mental illness, and hopes to enter the suicide prevention field to address the alarming rates of death by suicide within active duty and veteran populations of the U.S. military.”
• 2022: U.S. Naval Academy ‘22, Yale University ‘24
  • USNA degree: Political Science
  • Area of study at Yale: “Masters in Public Policy…and intends to enter the foreign policy sphere to enact change on equality & equity of access to policymaking.“
• 2021: U.S. Naval Academy ‘21, University of Southampton ‘22, University of Cambridge ‘23
  • USNA degree: Cyber operations
  • Area of study at Southampton & Cambridge: “…MPhil in Technology Policy, where he researched cybersecurity risk analysis frameworks and models for government agencies’ responses to cyber risks.”

So, looks like it started strong in 2021 and if I squint I can shrug at ‘23 and maybe ‘25, but a few questions remain.

1. If the primary purpose of the Naval Academy is to produce line officers for the Navy and USMC, is this the highest and best use of a recently commissioned officer from there? How does this help prepare for the coming struggle over the Pacific?
2. Are these areas of study really on the short-list of Combatant Commander’s challenges? This would do a few things:
3. Would all of these officers have been better served, and the interests of the Navy be served, if they had fleet experience first?
   1. Validate that they can perform in the fleet. Why invest in graduate education in an officer who simply cannot perform while leading Sailors or Marines? If they cannot do that, they will not promote. If they do not promote, they will never become senior enough to effectively influence any of the things they studied in graduate school.
   2. Give the individuals a better grasp of their profession. The actual Navy and Marine Corps, deployed, is a very different thing than the theories Midshipmen are given. This fleet perspective—and maturity—will give these men and women a better grounding, perspective, and focus of the utility of what they are studying.

So, follow the links above and ponder yourself.