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As the 20th century ends, it heralds a new era in the US Army's evolution-Force XXI. As with other Army institutions, the US Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, has begun to consider how it needs to change to meet the next century's demands. However, before selecting a course into the future, it is appropriate for the institution to reflect on its history. This article encapsulates the college's past for the benefit of the Army community that will guide the college into the future.
Fort Leavenworth's first Army school was the School of Application for Infantry and Cavalry. It opened in 1882 and was in no sense a staff college. The school taught basic branch skills to lieutenants. Within five years, the school began to evolve into an institution of higher military education. In 1902, Secretary of War Elihu Root's reforms resulted in the school's redesignation as the General Service and Staff College (GSSC) and placed it within a hierarchy of Army schools that included precommissioning institutions, such as the US Military Academy and the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, branch schools and the Army War College. From 1904 to 1917, GSSC included two separate courses: the School of the Line and the Army Staff College that, together, prepared officers for staff duties at division, corps and general staff levels. Attending GSSC became a necessary and desirable career step for aspiring officers. Leavenworth also became a center of military thought and doctrinal development.
Leavenworth graduates proved their worth in World War I, most conspicuously as staff officers at American Expeditionary Forces headquarters and as commanders at brigade and regimental levels. The graduates' performance secured the college's status. In 1922, the School of the Line and the Staff College merged to form the Command and General Staff School (CGSS). CGSS graduate lists during that time read like a "who's who" of World War II generals. In the 1940s, the school became the US Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC). Abbreviated courses and huge classes characterized the wartime college as it struggled to meet the demands for trained staff officers and commanders in a vastly expanded Army.
After World War II, the Army was committed to an unprecedented array of global peacetime...