Naval War College holds annual planning course for reserve officers

NEWPORT, R.I. – U.S. Naval War College’s (NWC) Joint Maritime Operations (JMO) department held its Reserve Officer Course this month aimed at making these service members more valuable to military planners when called upon in times of natural disaster or emergency. 

The course is an intensive two-week program intended to improve the students’ ability to plan the employment of U.S. military forces in joint and combined operational environments ranging from peacetime presence to conventional war. 

When reserve officers are called to active duty, they need to be prepared so they can contribute to solving the problem they are faced with, according to Ivan Luke, course director and associate professor in JMO. 

“We want these students to be better equipped to participate in a planning cell,” said Luke. “If there is a Joint Task Force being put together in times of crises, they need to augment their planning teams with reservists who are competent people who know what they are talking about.” 

To achieve this, students study the process of maritime operational decision making and the concepts that are considered when making those decisions. The course involves extensive reading assignments, seminar discussions and a practical planning. 

The course is held once each year, and the 60 students accepted into the course had to meet several admission requirements to screen for the most appropriate attendees. The students come from the Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Air Force. 

“We always need these students to have the skills to contribute to a joint planning exercise when they are called in to help,” said Luke. 

While the two-week in-residence program is intense, the students must then also complete the course through distance learning by accessing either using a web-based or CD-ROM-based curriculum. 

The intensity needed in this in-residence portion of the course brings out the best in both the students and the instructors. 

“This is really a lot of fun,” said Luke. “These folks are here for two weeks and they are raring to go. They are fully engaged because they know they are learning stuff that is useful to them whether in a hurricane response or a security situation. This is a course that is directly useful to these people. And I like teaching them. I’m only sorry that we don’t have the capacity to do this for more people.”