The study of the Air Force professional education system describes and examines the procedures used for determining, validating, and meeting requirements for the development of career officers via the formal programs and courses of Air University. A descriptive model is developed which displays the current processing procedures, information flows, and interrelationships among the agencies, programs, and structures which together comprise the educational system and its embedding environment. The findings from an analysis of the current system and from an examination of alternative procedures are presented together with suggested procedural modifications. It is concluded that the system in its present form does function as a system; that benefits from 'ready solutions' to particular problems may be more apparent than real when considered from the overall system's point of view; and that the principal values of the current study may lie in its descriptive rather than its prescriptive aspects. It is suggested that sustained and concentrated efforts on a number of fronts are needed to develop a comprehensive and valid set of prescriptive measures. Principal issues to be resolved and approaches to be considered are discussed. (Author).