Joint Professional Military Education

Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) is a form of Professional Military Education (PME) in the United States that emphasizes a multiservice approach. Joint Professional Military Education was established following greater awareness during World War II of a need for effective cooperation between the branches of the United States armed forces. While some institutions had previously served to provide joint training, notably the Army and Navy Staff College that operated in the last years of the War, the first senior school for Joint Professional Military Education was founded in 1946 under the direction of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The 1986 passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Act caused increased interest in Joint Professional Military Education and created a standard. As of 2005, JPME contains five levels, successful completion of two of which are among the qualifications for the designation Joint Service Officer. Joint Professional Military Education levels are available at a number of colleges and JPME Institutions.

Prior to World War II, the branches of the United States military generally trained their staff independently, but new demands for collaborative efforts by services dedicated to ground, sea and air made clear the need for joint education. In December 1942, Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, General Hap Arnold, proposed a War College that might train officers for joint operations between the United States Army and Navy and develop new methods and doctrines for cooperative efforts during the war. To meet this need, in 1943 Hap and his fellow Joint Chiefs of Staff established a temporary Army and Navy Staff College that provided four-month courses for officers through the end of the war.

During its operation, the Army and Navy Staff College's commandant, Lieutenant General John Dewitt was invited to lead a panel to develop recommendations for the future of joint military education, and the panel recommended the establishment of a national university that would incorporate a joint industrial college, joint war college and State Department college. At the same time, the Special Committee for Reorganization of the National Defense headed by Navy Admiral James Richardson (the Richardson Committee) began conducting national interviews that led to a highly controversial recommendation for a unified armed forces as well as a list of "three basic requirements" for joint military education and training: (1) adequate training to allow juniors to cooperatively enact joint plans, (2) joint education to allow officers to work together in drafting and enacting joint plans, and (3) joint education to allow officers at high levels to formulate and command large-scale, joint operations. While the United States Congress set about the slow course to developing the Department of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other military personnel were at work attempting to structure joint military education.

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