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Education: Staff colleges

Air Command and Staff College. This college at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., is the Air Force’s intermediate professional military education school. The college prepares field grade officers (primarily in paygrades 0-4 and 0-4 selects) of all U.S. military services, U.S. civilians from various federal agencies, and international officers to assume positions of higher responsibility within the military and other government arenas and is geared toward teaching the skills necessary to develop, employ and command air, space and cyberspace power in joint, combined and multinational operations.

ACSC offers three programs of study: a 10-month in-residence course; an online master’s degree, and a distance learning correspondence program.

Air University confers a master of military operational art and science degree to students who complete the 33-semester-hour resident and online programs.

Contact: (334) 953-2295; http://www .acsc.au.af.mil

Army Command and General Staff College. This school at the Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., is the Army’s primary institution for developing warfighting skills needed by mid-career officers at the brigade, division and corps command levels.

The resident 10-month Intermediate Level Education course at Leavenworth consists of a common core phase and an advanced warfighting and operations phase for officers of the line branches.

Specialty officers receive common core training at satellite locations. Follow-on training for specialists may involve graduate school, training with industry and other tailored programs, depending on functional area.

Other components of the Combined Arms Center and Command and General Staff College include the School of Advanced Military Studies, School of Command Preparation, Combat Studies Institute and Directorate of Nonresident Studies.

Contact: Fort Leavenworth public affairs, (913) 648-5604; http://cgsc .leavenworth.army.mil

Army Management Staff College. With a main campus at Fort Belvoir, Va., AMSC is leading the way in establishing the Civilian Education System, the leader-development component of the newly established Army Civilian Corps.

Key elements of the structured, progressive and sequential development system include a distributed learning foundation course for new employees, and basic, intermediate and advanced courses for employees as they transition from direct to indirect leadership positions.

Resident portions of the courses are conducted at Fort Belvoir, Va., and Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Contact: Dean of Academics, 5500 21st St., Fort Belvoir, VA. 22060-5934; (703) 805-4714; http://www.amsc.belvoir.army.mil

Marine Corps Command and Staff College. This college provides a 10-month intermediate course and an advanced intermediate course of professional military education to field-grade officers, offering them an optional Master of Military Studies degree for completing several requirements beyond the core curriculum. Twenty percent of Marine officers attend the school.

The college is geared toward preparing officers for command and staff duties with Marine air-ground task forces and assignment with joint, combined and high-level service organizations. It has two resident schools: the Command and Staff College and the School of Advanced Warfighting. A limited number of credit hours from each can be transferred to other colleges and universities.

Contact: Command and Staff College, (703) 784-3330; School of Advanced Warfighting, (703) 784-5121; http://www .mcu.usmc.mil/csc

Marine Corps College of Continuing Education. The Marine Corps’ primary organization for Advanced Distributed Learning designs, develops, delivers and manages distance learning products and programs through a worldwide network of satellite campuses, learning resource centers and video teletraining centers.

Regional coordinators at major installations facilitate local professional military education seminars for the Command and Staff College and the Expeditionary War School for nonresidential students.

Contact: 2079 Barnett Ave., Building 2079, Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA 22134-5118, (800) 992-9210 or (703) 784-2999; DSN 278-2999; http://www.tecom .usmc.mil/cce

MarineNet. This enterprise delivery network allows active and reserve Marines and the civilian work force to access professional military education classes, computer training and professional development and job aids online.

MarineNet offers courses such as Fundamentals of Marine Corps Leadership and the Marine Corps Planning Process, as well as other required training, such as the Operational Risk Management Course.

All personnel entered in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) database are authorized to use MarineNet free. Marine family members can take hundreds of online professional and personal development courses in addition to the Lifestyles Insights Networking and Skills Course for Marine Spouses.

Many online courses are accepted for college credit or professional certification.

Contact: Help desk, (888) 435-8762; http://www.marinenet.usmc.mil

Navy College of Naval Command and Staff. See Naval War College