When Kara Bates finished her stint as an Army pilot flying helicopters on reconnaissance missions over Kuwait and Iraq, she decided that getting an MBA after leaving the military would set her up for a civilian job with equal responsibility. Bate's flight plan turned out to be flawless. A 30-year-old West Point graduate, she is now in her second year at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. She has already accepted an offer from Guidant Corp., a manufacturer of cardiovascular devices, to act as a liaison with its medical customers.

As baby-boomers near retirement, private-sector employers such as Pfizer and General Motors are so eager to bring on new leadership prospects that they're paying a premium for former military officers with MBAs. Salaries start at $100,000, compared with $75,000 for non-military MBAs. Business schools at Duke, Howard and University of Southern California are recruiting veterans, too. Not only do they bring experience to MBA programs, but they also have a high rate of job-placement success.

Most in demand are junior military officers. Typically in their twenties with four to six years of service, they may already have managed multimillion-dollar budgets and dozens of people. Greg Eisenbarth is executive director of Military MBA (www.militarymba.net), which helps match affiliated business schools with prospective military students. Unlike the command-and-control style of elder military officers, says Eisenbarth, the younger generation expects to work collaboratively - a plus in today's workplace.

--Pat Mertz Esswein, Associate Editor