This study compared the life satisfaction of early retirement military officers with several comparison groups on the basis of Retirement Descriptive Index (RDI) scale scores. The RDI is a self-report instrument that assesses life satisfaction across four scales: Activities, Finances, Health, and People (associations). ??Early?? retirement from the military, after as few as 15 years of service, was possible between 1993 and 1999 under the Temporary Early Retirement Authority Program (TERA), enacted by Section 4403 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1993 to reduce post-Cold War U.S. military personnel strength. This was a departure from the traditional 20 to 30 year military career length referred to in this study as ??regular?? military retirement. A total of 57,693 personnel from the five military service branches, including 12,790 officers, retired early under this legislation. Previous research has revealed that many military retirees experienced adjustment difficulties during their post-retirement midlife military-to-civilian transition. A long-existing problem has been the inability to predict or prevent these adjustment difficulties. To examine one aspect of the adjustment of military retirees, the RDI was electronically administered via the internet to 122 early retirement military officers and 824 regular retirement military officers with retirement dates from the same period. RDI scale scores for the early retirement military officers were compared to those of the regular retirees. Additionally, comparisons were made with the RDI scale scores of other groups, including regular retirement military officers from previous studies, and early retirement civilians from a previous study. Analysis of RDI scale scores, using inferential statistical procedures including One-Way Analysis of Variance, chi-square tests of independence, and independent-samples t tests, revealed that early retirement military officers experienced slightly lower measures of life satisfaction in general than all comparison groups, and specifically experienced lower levels of satisfaction with their financial situations. Qualitative (anecdotal) data was included to complement the statistical analysis. Recommendations for research and practice were made regarding early retirement military officers.

This study examines the historical significance of the Virginia Military Institute’s (VMI) first superintendent, Francis Henney Smith, and his influence not only at his home institution but also on his broader social, educational, and political importance. Historiography neglects to credit or identify Smith’s contributions to the notable expansion of military education in the antebellum South and his influence beyond VMI. Not only did he play a key role in the developing of Southern military education, but overwhelming evidence indicates that the growth of these schools in the South would not have happened without Smith acting as an influential father figure. He provided the structure, ideology and pedagogical models of these institutions and advised, guided and inspired nearly every other Southern military school in the two decades preceding the Civil War. Moreover, his innovations spread far beyond those of military schools as he promoted a new vision for Virginia and the South, one in which independence could be established through intellectual solidarity by creating a society centered on education. As a West Point graduate, Smith structured VMI on the Sylvanus Thayer educational model and sought to promote this system throughout every school in Virginia and the South, both in military and non-military institutions. He also created a network of like-minded academics, mostly with alumni from the U.S. Military Academy who launched a movement to encourage a more practical education in the South, focusing on mathematics, engineering and the sciences. VMI graduates would also spread Smith’s academic gospel throughout the state and region as he encouraged them to serve their republic as teachers rather than soldiers. In spite of the popularity of his reforms and ideologies, Smith contended with the challenges of the volatile nature of antebellum Virginia politics as well as the social constructs of his native South, particularly in the forms of honor and masculinity demonstrated by his cadets. The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 temporarily destroyed his dreams improving VMI on the model of the most advanced scientific institutions in Europe as the Institute converted to an exclusively military mission to serve the Confederacy.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Caldwell, William J. ; Read, Robert R. Second Reader: Whitaker, Lyn R. "September 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on December 21, 2009. DTIC Identifier(s): Command And Control Systems, Timed Petri Nets, Attributed Petri Nets, Land Warfare, Thesis. Author(s) subject terms: Land Warfare, Military Planning, Military Science, Petri Nets, Command and Control, Combat Engineers. Includes bibliographical references (p. 80). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. D68525/86.

Thesis (EdD)--Open University.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Dan C. Boger, Erik Jansen. Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-77). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s):Don R. Eaton, William Gates. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-48). Also available online.

Diss.--Universität Bern.

Thesis ( Ph. D.) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

Thesis (M.A.)--Si li Zhongguo wen hua xue yuan. / Cover title. Mimeo. copy. Includes bibliographical references.