Didn't have this kinda stuff when I was in

[dcan]

I believe DANTES started in the early 70s. CLEP may have been around that time as well. DANTES is/was a DoD initiative to get troops educated in a non-traditional manner.

We are incredibly lucky in the Air Force. Education is pushed hard most places and supervisors often give at least an extended lunch period to study, depending on the job and mission requirements. Community College of the Air Force opened in 1972 and gained regional accreditation in 1979, and in the past few years awarded its 400,000th associate's degree. A CCAF degree is effectively required for promotion to E-8 now. There is also a movement afoot to have Air University award a bachelor's degree as part of the enlisted career path. AU already awards masters degrees and a PhD, plus there is the Air Force Institute of Technology that grants master's degrees and PhDs in technical research. I know an officer who got a PhD in operations research with a dissertation on using mathematical modeling to discover connections between people who don't want to be discovered, tailored to identifying hidden relationships in terrorist cells.

Conversely the Marines last year tried to cut TA down from $4,500 per year to $875 per year, barely enough for one class. I guess they were going to cut there instead of cutting a weapon system or personnel. But the DoD ordered the cap restored to $4,500. But Marines (and Army) are in a tough spot trying to take classes. The jobs and missions are not as flexible to accommodate education. It's a tough road.

There has been serious discussion of a Community College of the Armed Forces in the past decade or so, but the hurdles are massive. But if it could happen the benefit would be huge for all the enlisted in all branches.

I'm expecting TA to get gutted, maybe as early as this year. The Post-9/11 GI Bill is already free for everyone, and it is funded through the VA. DoD could drop all TA and save a huge chunk of money, and shift all costs to VA and get them off the books. I think we will start being weaned back to 75% TA to start with soon, and it will slowly go down from there.