The United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC or USACGSC) is a staff college for United States Army located at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The college was established in 1881 by William Tecumseh Sherman as the School of Application for Infantry and Cavalry (later simply the Infantry and Cavalry School), a training school for infantry and cavalry officers.
In 1907 it changed its title to the School of the Line. The curriculum expanded throughout World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War and continues to adapt to include lessons learned from current conflicts. It provides Professional Military Education to officers of the United States Army, as well as foreign military officers.
In addition to the main campus at Fort Leavenworth, the college has satellite campuses at Fort Belvoir, Virginia; Fort Lee, Virginia; Fort Gordon, Georgia; and Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The college also maintains a distance-learning modality for some of its instruction.
Contents
Mission statement
The United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) educates, trains and develops leaders for Unified Land Operations in a joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational operational environment; and to advance the art and science of the Profession of Arms in support of Army operational requirements.
Schools
The college consists of four schools: the Command and General Staff School, the School of Advanced Military Studies, the School for Command Preparation, and the Sergeants Major Academy.
Command and General Staff School (CGSS) delivers a ten-month Command and General Staff Officers Course (CGSOC) in residence at Fort Leavenworth, KS, to just over 1,200 U.S. military officers, international military officers, and interagency partners each academic year. Additionally, the School teaches CGSOC Common Core to 960 students at four satellite campuses, and the CGSOC Common Core and Advanced Operations Course (AOC) via distance learning (DL) to approximately 5,300 active and reserve component officers around the world. Resident CGSOC students are eligible to pursue the Masters of Operational Studies (MOS) or the Master of Military Art and Science (MMAS). Chapter 7 details CGSS delivery of CGSOC.
– The School of Professional Military Education at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) on Fort Benning, GA, offers the ten-month resident Command and General Staff Officer Course in Spanish to approximately 64 US and international officers each year. Since 2012, CGSOC students at SPME have been eligible to pursue the MMAS.
School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) provides the Advanced Military Studies Program (AMSP) to 144 officers – most of whom just graduated from CGSOC – and the Advanced Strategic Leadership Studies Program (ASLSP) for 16 Senior Service College-select U.S. officers, international officers, and U.S. agency partners. All graduates of AMSP receive the Master of Arts in Military Operations, while graduates of ASLSP receive a Master of Arts in Strategic Studies. SAMS also manages the Army’s Advanced Strategic Planning and Policy Program (ASP3) within which Army officers pursue PhDs in international relations, public policy, economics, and history from leading universities in the U.S. and United Kingdom. There are currently 103 carefully selected senior Army strategic planners and future leaders in this program.
School for Command Preparation (SCP) provides continuing education for future Army battalion and brigade commanders, command sergeants major, and spouses in ten 1-4 week courses offered multiple times during each academic year. SCP’s important mission and ten courses are characterized in Chapter 10.
Master of Military Art and Science degree
The Command and General Staff College confers a Master of Military Art and Science (MMAS) professional degree to graduates of the School of Advanced Military Studies as well as graduates of the Command and General Staff School who complete a thesis-level research paper. The degree is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission for collegiate institutions in the midwestern United States.
Notable people
Notable foreign alumni
The college reports that 7,000 international students representing 155 countries have attended CGSC since 1894 and that more than 50 percent of CGSC International Military Student (IMS) graduates attain the rank of general.
Brigadier Aslam Khan, Captured Kennedy Peak (Myanmar) in World War II and conquered Gilgit Baltistan, brother of Air Marshal Asghar Khan
General Carlos Prats, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Interior and Defense Minister, Vice President of the Republic of Chile.
Prime Minister and General Kriangsak Chamanan of Thailand
General Alfredo M. Santos of the Philippines
Lieutenant General Rafael Ileto (former Secretary of the Department of National Defense) of the Philippines
Prime Minister and General Tran Thien Khiem of South Vietnam
General Do Cao Tri of South Vietnam
General Hau Pei-tsun of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda
General Jennie Carignan of Canada
General Katumba Wamala of Uganda
General Demisse Bulto of Ethiopia
General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Ugandan president, he serves as chief of defence forces of Uganda
General Yahya Khan of Pakistan
Notable faculty and deputy commandants
Robert Arter (Deputy Commandant 1977–79)
Richard E. Cavazos (faculty 1970–71)
Roger H.C. Donlon (1978–81)
Frederick M. Franks Jr. (Deputy commandant 1985–87)
Glenn K. Otis Deputy Chief of Staff 1976–78
Colin Powell Deputy Commanding General of the Combined Arms Combat Development Activity (1982–83)
Lowell Ward Rooks (1933−1935)
Gordon R. Sullivan Deputy Commandant 1987–88
Adna R. Chaffee Jr. 1919–20
Clarence R. Huebner (1929–33)
Walter Krueger (1901–12)
Lucian Truscott 1934–40
Commandants
Since 1976, the commandant of the college has been a lieutenant general. David Petraeus was the commandant between 2005 and 2007, immediately before going to command the Multi-National Force – Iraq.