美国军方正处于十多年来最好的招募期。海军今夏宣布已招募45,000名新水兵，提前三个月完成目标；陆军则提前四个月达成招募61,500多名士兵的目标。国会已授权本财年部队增加约26,100名士兵。
The U.S. military is in the middle of its best recruiting run in more than a decade. The Navy announced this summer that it signed 45,000 new sailors, hitting its goal three months ahead of schedule, and the Army reached its target of more than 61,500 soldiers four months early. Congress has authorized the force to grow by roughly 26,100 troops this fiscal year.
数十万美国人自愿将生命置于险境，国家向他们每一个人承诺，服役将为他们脱下军装后很长一段时间打开机会之门。高等教育本应是兑现这一承诺的主要场所，但往往并非如此。
Hundreds of thousands of Americans are volunteering to put their lives on the line, and the country is promising each of them that service will open doors long after they take off the uniform. Higher education is where much of that promise is supposed to be kept. Too often it is not.
超过半数的军人表示教育福利是他们参军的主要原因，但只有约三成退伍军人拥有学士学位。高校是国家安全的关键合作伙伴。军队招募和留住人才的能力，部分取决于服役后获得机会的可信承诺。高等教育必须做得更多，帮助国家兑现其承诺。
More than half of our military say education benefits are a primary reason they join, yet only about three in 10 veterans hold a bachelor’s degree. Colleges and universities are critical partners in national security. The military’s ability to recruit and retain talent depends, in part, on a credible promise of opportunity after their service. Higher education must do more to help the nation hold up its end of the bargain.
我深知大学教育的价值。我在担任空军军官、负责海外任务期间，从国家大学获得了组织领导力硕士学位。那段教育经历改变了我的领导方式，也提升了我为军队服务的能力。之所以能做到这一点，是因为我的大学是为像我这样的学生量身打造的。课程每次为期四周，全年滚动开设。由于完全在线授课，无论空军将我派往何处，我都能轻松继续学业。
I know the value of college firsthand. I earned my master’s degree in organizational leadership from National University while serving as an Air Force officer overseeing missions abroad. That education changed how I lead and what I can offer the service. That was possible because my university was built for students like me. My courses ran for four weeks at a time and started year-round. Since they were entirely online, I could easily pick up my education wherever the Air Force sent me next.
我的许多战友并没有这么幸运。大多数校园仍沿用为刚从高中毕业的青少年设计的“营房式”作息表。传统的学年历围绕着这样一类学生构建：他们能连续投入16周，一年两次，持续四年。但经历部署周期的现役军人并不生活在那张日历上；预备役人员、军人配偶，以及一面全职工作一面求学的退伍军人，亦是如此。
Many of my fellow service members are not so fortunate. Most campuses still operate on a garrison schedule designed for teenagers arriving straight from high school. The traditional academic calendar is built around a student who can commit to 16 uninterrupted weeks, twice a year, for four years. Troops navigating deployment cycles do not live on that calendar. Neither do reservists, military spouses, or veterans who work full-time while they study.
然而，这种错位远不止排课层面。现役军人和退伍军人踏入校园时，往往带着服役留下的显性与隐性创伤，从创伤后应激障碍、创伤性损伤，到因服役导致的身体残疾。全国近一半的学生退伍军人通过退伍军人事务部接受心理健康照护。然而，旨在将退伍军人事务部临床医生派驻大学校园的联邦项目，目前仅在全美54所院校提供现场临床服务。
The mismatch runs deeper than scheduling, however. Service members and veterans often arrive on campus with the visible and invisible wounds of military service, from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic injury to service-connected physical disabilities. Nearly half of the country’s student veterans receive mental health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs. And yet the federal program that aims to place Veterans Affairs clinicians on college campuses delivers on-site clinical care at just 54 institutions nationwide.
但临床照护只是这些学生所需的一部分。许多现役军人还背负着研究人员所谓的“道德创伤”。这与创伤后应激障碍截然不同，指的是在服役——尤其是战斗——中经历的事件与个人的是非观念发生冲突，从而留下的持久心理困扰。
But clinical care is only part of what these students need. Many service members also live with what researchers call moral injury. Distinct from post-traumatic stress disorder, this is the lasting distress that can follow experiences in service, particularly combat, that conflict with a person’s sense of right and wrong.
我亲眼目睹服役的重担如何跟随人们走进课堂，而我校教师在认识我作为学生之前，先花时间在个人层面了解我。这种信任让我在遇到困难时更容易开口求助、坚持学业。鼓励建立此类师生关系的高校，能够触达那些常被其他院校忽视的退伍军人群体。
I have seen how the weight of service follows people into the classroom, and the faculty at my university took the time to know me on a personal level before they knew me as a student. That trust made it easier to ask for help and to stay enrolled when the work got hard. Colleges that encourage those relationships can reach veterans whom other institutions too often overlook.
接着是大学如何将军事服务转换为学分的问题。一名协助保障700人营级单位燃料、饮食和装备补给的士兵，或一名协助维护核反应堆的水手，展现出的技能是大多数本科生毕业后很久才能培养出来的，甚至一辈子都无法掌握。但许多院校对军事训练和职业经历给予的学分极少甚至为零，迫使现役军人为已掌握的知识付费并重修课程。认可先前学习经历并授予学分，能缩短获取学位的路径，为学生节省时间和金钱，也能向退伍军人表明：他们在服役期间获得的技能和知识在平民生活中依然宝贵。
Then there is the question of how colleges translate military service into credit hours. A soldier who helped keep a 700-person battalion fueled, fed, and equipped or a sailor who helped maintain a nuclear reactor has demonstrated skills that most undergraduates won’t develop until well after graduation, if at all. But many institutions award little or no credit for military training and career experience, forcing service members to pay for and sit through material they have already mastered. Offering credit for prior learning can shorten the path to a degree, save students time and money, and show veterans that the skills and knowledge they gained through service still matter in civilian life.
最后，高校应更好地将军人和退伍军人学生与毕业后的生活联系起来。学位本应通向职业生涯。退伍军人需要能将其军事经历转化为民用雇主语言的顾问，需要建立行业合作伙伴关系，并将他们的训练和教育与高需求领域对接。将教育福利与职业服务、健康支持相结合的项目和服务，将从军队到大学再到职场的过渡视为一个持续的使命，而非一系列脱节的交接。
Finally, colleges should do a better job connecting military and veteran students to their post-graduation lives. A degree is meant to be a path to a career. Veterans need advisors who can translate their military experience for civilian employers, connect them with industry partnerships, and map their training and education to high-demand fields. Programs and services that pair education benefits with career services and wellness support approach the transitions between the military, college and the workforce as part of one continuous mission rather than a series of disconnected handoffs.
招生依赖口碑和人际关系。当一名退伍军人未获学位就离开大学，这个故事会在餐桌旁流传，影响着正在权衡是否参军的兄弟姐妹或堂表亲妹。国家正向创纪录数量的报名服役的美国人做出承诺。高等教育必须帮助兑现这一承诺。
Recruiting runs on word of mouth and relationships. When a veteran leaves college without a degree, that story gets told around a kitchen table where a sibling or cousin is weighing whether to enlist. The country is making a promise to the record number of Americansg up to serve. Higher education must help keep it.
Philip “Flip” West是国家大学和UCLA校友。其观点不一定代表战争部立场。
Philip “Flip” West is a National University and UCLA Alumni. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of War.