Squadron Officer School

Squadron Officer School
Squadron Officer School emblem
Active	1 Nov 1954 to present
Country	United States of America
Branch	Air Force
Type	Professional Military Education
Size	3,000 students annually
Part of	Squadron Officer College, Air University, Air Education and Training Command
Colors	blue and gold
Decorations	Air Force Outstanding Unit Award (4), Air Force Organizational Excellence Award (10)
Website	http://www.au.af.mil/au/soc/sos.asp
Commanders
Current commander	Brigadier General Gerald Goodfellow

Squadron Officer School (SOS), is a five-week-long Professional Military Education (PME) course for U.S. Air Force Captains, 1st Lieutenants selected for Captain, Department of the Air Force Civilian (DAFC) equivalents and International Officers. It fulfills the U.S. Air Force's requirement for primary developmental education (PDE). SOS is based at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and the in-residence version of the course is taught there. SOS is part of the Squadron Officer College (SOC), an element of the Air University.

Unlike Air University's intermediate and senior level PME courses, there is no seminar program for SOS. In addition, "in residence" attendance at SOS does not include any U.S. officers from sister services, although those officers are eligible to take SOS via correspondence or distance learning formats.

Squadron Officer School traces its roots to the Air Corps Tactical School, which was founded in 1926 and closed in 1946. When SOS was established at Maxwell AFB in 1950, it became an arm of Air Command and Staff College. Colonel Russell V. Ritchey, USAF, was the founder of SOS and its first commandant. In 1959, SOS became a separate Air University school reporting directly to the Air University commander.

Originally established as a 12-week in-residence program at Maxwell AFB, SOS was shortened to an 8-week program in the early 1990s due, in part, to post-Cold War budgetary pressures.

In 1997, in an effort to emulate The Basic School (TBS) program of the U.S. Marine Corps, the Air Force established the Air and Space Basic Course (ASBC) for all newly commissioned Second Lieutenants in the Regular Air Force, the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, regardless of commissioning source (e.g., USAFA, AFROTC, Air Force OTS, Academy of Military Science, direct commission, etc.), graduating its first class of Second Lieutenants in early 1998. Concurrent with this action, the Air Force shortened the in-residence SOS curriculum to 5 weeks. ASBC shared Building 1403 at Maxwell AFB with SOS until military construction at Maxwell AFB later expanded classroom space for both schools. In 2000, both ASBC and SOS merged to form an integrated Squadron Officer College (SOC), with both schools sharing a common curriculum directorate and mission support staff.