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Yugoslavia Officer Education
Several higher military schools served as the main training
source for officers of the various service branches. Secondaryschool students and a certain number of qualified active-duty
NCOs could apply for competitive admission to those institutions.
Applicants were required to have good "moral-political"
qualities, a term generally interpreted to mean membership in the
League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia (the official youth
organization sponsored by the League of Communists of
Yugoslavia). By 1990, however, Yugoslav youth showed diminished
enthusiasm both for party activity and for a military career;
applications to higher military schools dropped accordingly.
Cadets in the military schools normally followed a three- to
five-year curriculum designed for line officers or for military
engineers. Each combat arm and technical or administrative branch
of the YPA had at least one higher military school. Once
commissioned into active duty, graduates were required to remain
in service for six to ten years. Military pilots had a fifteenyear obligation. After being assigned to a permanent unit, young
officers learned most of their basic duties on the job. After
several years of active service, they were selected for
specialist training. Some commissioned officers in technical
fields such as communications and aviation maintenance were sent
directly to advanced training programs. Outstanding senior
captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels were chosen to attend a
higher military academy for two years of advanced study in
tactics and operations. Selected colonels attended a one-year
command-and-staff program. Battleship lieutenants, corvette
captains, frigate captains, and battleship captains attended
similar courses at the Higher Naval Academy in Split. In 1990
some Yugoslav officers were selected to attend prestigious Soviet
military academies, which were similar to command-and-staff or
war colleges in the United States.
Data as of December 1990
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