Arthur T. Coumbe

Still Soldiers and Scholars? An Analysis of Army Officer Testing traces the history of officer accessions testing and assessment in the U. S. Army from about 1900 until the present day. This book is intended to supplement the series of monographs written by the Army's Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis (OEMA) that were intended to provide a conceptual and theoretical framework for the development of an Army officer corps strategy. Those monographs consider the creation and maintenance of a highly skilled officer corps in the context of the nation's continuing commitment to an all-volunteer military, its far-flung international interests, and ongoing changes in its domestic labor market. They advocate building a talent-focused strategy around a human capital model focused on accessing, developing, retaining, and employing talent.

The Army's Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis published a series of monographs that were intended to provide a theoretical and conceptual framework for the development of an Army Officer Corps Strategy. These monographs consider the creation and maintenance of a highly skilled Officer Corps in the context of the nation's continuing commitment to an all-volunteer military, its far flung international interests, and ongoing changes in its domestic labor market. The authors contend that the confluence of these factors demands a comprehensive Officer Corps strategy recognizing the interdependency of accessing, developing, retaining, and employing talent. In their view, building a talent-focused strategy around this four-activity human capital model would best posture the Army to match individual officer competencies to specific competency requirements.