The United States Command and General Staff College is hosted by the United States Combined Arms Center (CAC) at Fort Leavenworth, and all three institutions are included in the official designation given its various insignias: the Command and General Staff College and Combined Arts Center and Fort Leavenworth Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (or Distinctive Unit Insignia, or Device, etc.).
Its name wasn’t always this cumbersome: Its Shoulder Sleeve Insignia was originally approved only for the Command General Staff College on 1 July 1955 and was amended in December 1956 to revise its description. On 30 October 1974, wear authorization was extended to personnel assigned to CAC and Fort Leavenworth itself.
Established in 1881 by William Tecumseh Sherman and named the School of Application for Infantry and Cavalry—later truncated to the Infantry and Cavalry School—the Command General Staff College today consists of four schools: Command and General Staff School, School of Advanced Military Studies, School for Command Preparation, and the School of Advanced Leadership and Tactic. In addition to the Fort Leavenworth site, the College offers courses on satellite campuses at two locations in Virginia (Fort Belvoir and Fort Gregg-Adams, formerly Fort Lee), one in Georgia (Fort Eisenhower, formerly known as Fort Gordon), and one in Alabama (Redstone Arsenal).
The design of the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI) is based on the school’s device. A chevron denotes the martial nature of the College. Oil lamps in military heraldry are associated with study and learning, and in addition to that meaning here they also represent the three-part structure of the U.S. Army: Regular Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve.
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U.S. Army Command and General Staff College & CAC & Ft. Leavenworth Unit Crest (DUI)