The United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC or, obsolete, USACGSC) at
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is a
graduate school
Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachel ...
for
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military officers. The college was established in 1881 by
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a General officer, general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), earning recognit ...
as the
School of Application for Infantry and Cavalry (later simply the Infantry and Cavalry School), a training school for
infantry
Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...
and
cavalry
Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...
officers. In 1907 it changed its title to the School of the Line. The curriculum expanded throughout
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
,
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
, and the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
and continues to adapt to include lessons learned from current conflicts.
In addition to the main campus at Fort Leavenworth, the college has satellite campuses at
Fort Belvoir,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
;
Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia;
Fort Eisenhower,
Georgia; and
Redstone Arsenal,
Alabama
Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
. The college also maintains a distance-learning modality for some of its instruction.
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.
* The Sergeants Major Academy (SGM-A) on Fort Bliss, TX, became CGSC's fourth school and a branch campus in March 2018. Each year, SGM-A offers the ten-month Sergeants Major Course-Resident (SMC-R) to 720 senior U.S. and international noncommissioned officers, and the SMC via distributed learning to another 1,320 mainly Army Reserve and National Guard NCOs around the world.
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 alumni
*
Creighton Abrams
Creighton Williams Abrams Jr. (15 September 1914 – 4 September 1974) was a United States Army General (United States), general who commanded military operations in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972. He was then Chief of Staff of the United Sta ...
(1949)
*
Clara Leach Adams-Ender (1976)
*
Henry H. Arnold (1929)
*
Lloyd J. Austin III
*
Charles L. Bolte (1932)
*
Omar Bradley (1929)
*
Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. (1928)
*
Richard E. Cavazos (1960)
*
Mark W. Clark (1935)
*
Wesley Kanne Clark (1975)
*
J. Lawton Collins (1933)
*
William E. DePuy (1946)
*
Jacob L. Devers (1925)
*
Roger H.C. Donlon (1971)
*
Robert L. Eichelberger (1929)
*
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1925–26)
*
James M. Gavin (1942)
*
Andrew Goodpaster (1943)
*
Stuart Heintzelman
Major general (United States), Major General Stuart Heintzelman (19 November 1876 – 6 July 1935) was an American soldier. He was a grandson of Civil War general Samuel P. Heintzelman.
Military career
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant ...
(1916)
*
Lewis Blaine Hershey (1933)
*
Courtney Hodges (1925)
*
William M. Hoge (1928)
*
Michelle J. Howard (1998)
*
Clarence R. Huebner (1925)
*
Harold Keith Johnson (1949)
*
Robert Kingston (1960)
*
John C. H. Lee (1918)
*
Kirk Lippold (1994)
*
Douglas MacArthur (1912)
*
Raymond S. McLain (1938)
*
George Marshall (1907)
*
Troy H. Middleton (1924)
*
Aubrey Newman (1943)
*
Lunsford E. Oliver (1928)
*
John McAuley Palmer (1910)
*
George S. Patton Jr. (1924)
*
David Petraeus (1983)
*
Paul D. Phillips (1951)
*
Colin Powell (1968)
*
Elwood Richard Quesada (1937)
*
Matthew Ridgway (1935)
*
Bernard W. Rogers (1954)
*
Lowell Ward Rooks (1935)
*
Richard J. Seitz (1950)
*
Peter J. Schoomaker (1982)
*
H. Norman Schwarzkopf (1969)
*
Clarence O. Sherrill (1906)
*
Walter Bedell Smith (1935)
*
Carl Andrew Spaatz (1936)
*
Donn A. Starry (1960)
*
Joseph Warren Stilwell (1926)
*
Gordon R. Sullivan (1969)
*
Loree K. Sutton
*
Maxwell D. Taylor (1935)
*
Maxwell R. Thurman (1967)
*
Hoyt Vandenberg (1936)
*
James Van Fleet (1918)
*
Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV (1931)
*
Albert Coady Wedemeyer (1936)
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
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
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.
* Minister of State General Mohammed F Abo Sak of Saudi Arabia
* 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
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
* Brigadier General
Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Ugandan president
* General
Yahya Khan of
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
* General
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan
* General
Rahimuddin Khan of Pakistan
* General
Jehangir Karamat of Pakistan
* General
Ashfaq Parvez Kayani of Pakistan
* General
Eiji Kimizuka of Japan
* General
Hisham Jaber of Lebanon
* General
Krishnaswamy Sundarji of
Indian Army
* Brigadier-General
Lee Hsien Loong of
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
, 3rd
Prime Minister of Singapore
* General
Dieudonné Kayembe Mbandakulu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
* President
Gaafar Nimeiry of Sudan
* Lt. Colonel
Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero of the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua
* General
Nguyễn Hợp Đoàn of
South Vietnam
* General
Nguyễn Khánh of
South Vietnam
* General
Phạm Văn Đổng of
South Vietnam
* Ministry/Chief of Army General Staff and General
Ahmad Yani of Indonesia
* President and General
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949), commonly referred to as SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired Indonesian Army, army general who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014 and the second president of Ind ...
of Indonesia
* General
Veljko Kadijević
Veljko Kadijević ( sr-Cyrl, Вељко Кадијевић; 21 November 1925 – 2 November 2014) was a Serbian General officer, general of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). He was the Minister of Defence in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugo ...
of
Yugoslavia
, common_name = Yugoslavia
, life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation
, p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia
, flag_p ...
* General
Antonio Domingo Bussi of Argentina
* General
Moeen U Ahmed of Bangladesh
* General
Amer Khammash of Jordan
* General
Arne Dagfin Dahl of Norway
* General
Gustav Hägglund of Finland
* General
Avigdor Kahalani of Israel
* Lieutenant General
David Tevzadze of Georgia
* Major General
Vladimer Chachibaia of Georgia
* Colonel
Nikoloz Janjgava of Georgia
* Général d'armée
René Imbot, Chief of Staff of the French Army, General Director of
DGSE, France
* King
Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of
Bahrain
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...
* General
Abdulkadir Sheikh Dini of Somalia
* Colonel
Ahmed Mohammed Ali of Egypt
* President and General
Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco of Brazil
* Lieutenant General
Sean McCann of Ireland
* General
Mahesh Senanayake of
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
* General
Bipin Rawat of India, Chief of Defence Staff
* Lieutenant General
Mykhailo Zabrodskyi of Ukraine
*
Major General Andrus Merilo of Estonia
* Minister of Defense of Kosovo,
Ejup Maqedonci
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
Walter Krueger (26 January 1881 – 20 August 1967) was an American soldier and general officer in the first half of the 20th century. He commanded the Sixth United States Army in the South West Pacific Area during World War II. He rose fro ...
(1901–12)
*
Lucian Truscott
General (United States), General Lucian King Truscott Jr. (9 January 1895 – 12 September 1965) was a highly decorated senior United States Army Officer (armed forces), officer, who saw distinguished Active duty, active service during World War ...
1934–40
Commandants
Since 1976, the commandant of the college has been a
lieutenant general
Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...
.
David Petraeus was the commandant between 2005 and 2007, immediately before going to command the
Multi-National Force – Iraq.
Photo gallery
File:Students of the US Command and General Staff College (1950-51).jpg, Students of the Fifth course 1950-51
File:International students, class of 1998-99 (United States Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavensworth, Kansas).jpg, International Students of Class 1998–99
File:International students, class of 1998-99 (United States Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavensworth, Kansas) on a class trip to Burns & McDonnell Engineering.jpg, International Students of Class 1998–99 on a Kansas company visit
File:International students, class of 1998-99 (United States Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavensworth, Kansas) on a class trip to Gettysburg.jpg, International Students of Class 1998–99 Gettysburg visit
See also
*
Battle command
*
Air Command and Staff College
*
Indonesian Army Command and General Staff College
References
External links
*
Command and General Staff College, Combined Arms Research LibraryCommand and General Staff College, Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library
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1881 establishments in the United States
1881 in Kansas
Staff colleges of the United States
Universities and colleges in Kansas
Education in Leavenworth County, Kansas
Military in Kansas
Fort Leavenworth
United States Army schools
Buildings and structures in Leavenworth County, Kansas
Universities and colleges accredited by the Higher Learning Commission