The Air War College was one of five war colleges in the United States. Their mission was to prepare the world’s best strategic leaders by stimulating innovative thinking on critical military issues. All military services sent their best senior officers to one of the five. Also present were senior officials from other federal agencies and outstanding officers from forty other nations. Each student brought diverse experiences and backgrounds. National figures lectured each day—a Marine general, a senator, the Deputy Secretary of Defense. These lectures were followed by thought-provoking discussion groups.
Brown was thirty-nine when he came to teach at the Air War College. Almost all the students were older than he. Brown was in charge of the curriculum concerning science, technology, and decision making. He also lectured on operations research and taught an elective course in computers. He had never had a course in computers, but he had always kept current with computer technology. Brown had often had to learn a new computer system because he could see how it would help him at a new job.