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Graduates of Class 21-E stand for the arrival of the official party at a graduation ceremony at the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy on Maxwell-Gunter Annex, Alabama, May 26, 2020. The SNCOA held its first in-person graduation ceremony since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jackson Manske)

Capitalizing on Non-Commissioned Officers' Advanced Degrees

Published April 16, 2026
By JSOU/USASOC

SOF components are increasingly investing in degrees for noncommissioned officers ([NCOs]; including graduate degrees) that provide rare skills, but there is not currently a process at Army Special Operations Forces or most other service components that aligns one’s skills with position roles. How can the SOF enterprise and SOF service components best make use of these NCOs to leverage their new skills?