The United States Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) is one of five United States Army schools that make up the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The school consists of two programs: the larger Advanced Military Studies Program (AMSP), and the Advanced Operational Art Studies Fellowship (AOASF), which is attended by more senior officers. The student body is small, but diverse; the U.S. armed forces, U.S. interagency, and allied military forces are represented at the school.
The first class, in 1984, graduated 13 students. Due to increasing requirements for SAMS graduates by the U.S. military, the school was expanded during the 1990s. The 2010 graduating class comprised over 120 students.
The graduate school which issues a Masters Degree in Military Arts and Sciences is both a training ground and a think tank for some of the Army's brightest officers. The Army chief of staff, and sometimes the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asks SAMS graduates to develop contingency plans for future military operations. SAMS planners have supported every major U.S. military campaign since the school's inception in 1984. Graduates are colloquially known as "Jedi Knights".[1]
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Selection for this intense academic program includes an application process, interview, and an examination. SAMS attendees must complete the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff School or an equivalent intermediate-level education course offered by another uniformed service. The student body of SAMS comprises mostly U.S. Army field grade officers from combat, combat support, and combat service support branches.[2] However, in the 1987–1988 academic year, the U.S. joint services began participation with three U.S. Air Force graduates; officers from the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps followed in the next two years. In later years, other U.S. government agencies also began sending students to SAMS.[3] The course is co-ed; Major Linda Linden became the first female graduate in 1989.[3] Various foreign militaries are represented in the student body. "The first international officers, from Norway and Canada, graduated in academic year 1998–1999."[3] Numerous allied militaries are now represented at SAMS, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[4] The first United States Agency for International Development (USAID) graduate was John Riodan, who attended the AMSP in 2007–2008; the first Federal Bureau of Investigation student, Special Agent Danny Day, attended the AOASF beginning in 2009.[5] Warrant officers were first admitted to SAMS in the 2010–2011 class, including its highest ranking warrant officer graduate, CW5 John Robinson.[6]
"Everyone thinks since you're a SAMS graduate that you have all the answers for any of their problems ... which, of course, you do."
The mission of SAMS is to "educate the future leaders of the Armed Forces, Allies and the Interagency at the graduate level to be agile and adaptive leaders who think critically at the strategic and operational levels to solve complex ambiguous problems".[8] Lieutenant General David Huntoon stated that
SAMS could rightly be called the most brilliant education for critical thinking in military history, and the most revolutionary change in the planning structure of standing armies since the creation of the Prussian General Staff in the mid 1800s.[9]
Similar schools are offered by the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force: the Marine Corps' School of Advanced Warfighting (SAW), and the Air Force's School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS).[10]
"Work Relentlessly, Accomplish Much, Remain in the Background, and Be More Than You Seem."
"SAMS graduated its first class of 13 students in May 1984, and subsequent classes over the next 16 years averaged 48. In 2000, the Army began expanding the program from four seminars to the current nine to more than double the size of the class." The school conducts two classes per year, one graduating in December, and one graduating in May or June. In 2010, the school's graduating class included more than 120 students—the largest class ever in the school's 26-year history.[4] As of 2009, more than 1700 students from 13 countries have successfully completed the course.[8]
In its early years, the value of the school had not yet been established. The "first test of battle" for SAMS graduates came during Operation Just Cause. A core planning cell of seven SAMS graduates "crafted a well rehearsed and well executed plan that simultaneously struck some roughly 50 objectives in a single coordinated blow".[12] The results of Operation Just Cause reverberated within the school. An end-of-course survey in 1990 suggested that—considering the operation—" 'LIC [low intensity conflict] needed more emphasis', and that the course needed 'more joint participation' ".[13]
Lieutenant General Guy C. Swan noted that SAMS graduates were indispensable in Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall and the dissolution of the WARSAW Pact. SAMS graduates were expected to "re-engineer the decades of planning that had gone into the GDP [General Defense Plan] almost overnight". Swan stated that this was "the first true test of SAMS on a large scale".[4] SAMS graduates are "remembered most famously in the early days for producing the 'Jedi Knights' employed by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf in developing the famous 'left hook' during Desert Storm".[8]
Lieutenant General David Huntoon stated in 2009 that SAMS "has established a corps of leaders, thinkers and planners who in the last two decades have reset the conditions for American military success”.[8] As of 2009, SAMS graduates have supported every major U.S. military campaign operation during the last 25 years.[9] SAMS graduates are known "for their critical thinking skill sets",[14] and are a "commodity [consistently] called for by combatant commanders around the world today".[15] In 2010, Brigadier General Sean MacFarland stated that,
In a crisis, the president always asks, 'where are the aircraft carriers?' In the Army, leaders ask, 'Where are the SAMS graduates?' Just as the aircraft carrier was a game changer in naval warfare, SAMS graduates and practitioners of operational art have been game changers in land warfare.[4]
In 2010, Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter W. Chiarelli, "praised the school ... for being at the forefront of the effort to remake strategic military planning for the 21st century".[4]
On 30 August 2011 the school moved to the newly renovated Muir Hall at Fort Leavenworth.[16]
The School for Advanced Military Studies comprises two programs available for students: the Advanced Military Studies Program (AMSP) and the Advanced Operational Arts Studies Fellowship (AOASF). The AMSP "educates students in military arts and science", while the AOASF focuses on "planning and executing full-spectrum operations in coordination with other government and nongovernmental agencies."[4]
Feedback from students with extensive operational experience is used to continuously reshape and improve the classes and training.[17]
As part of the completion requirements for the course, students "write either one or two monographs (depending on the requirement at the time) and are awarded a Master of Military Art and Science (MMAS) graduate degree" at the end of the school.[18]
The majority of SAMS students participate in the Advanced Military Studies Program.[19] It is designed to educate leaders within the United States "Armed Forces, our Allies, and the Interagency at the graduate level to think strategically and operationally to solve complex problems across the security environment. The AMSP course covers a variety of subjects, including
instruction on military problem solving, classical and contemporary military theory and history, Army and joint doctrine and the fundamentals of planning, battle dynamics, division/corps/JTF operations, operational art theory and practice, air, sea SOF [Special Operations Forces] operations, contemporary military operations, national security strategy, BCTP [Battle Command Training Program] exercise, and a focused studies seminar on one particular subject that will be studied in depth.[20]
Graduates are innovative risk-takers willing to experiment and excel at adaptive leadership and at the art of command. Officers are critical thinkers who are able to synthesize the elements of U.S. national power and anticipate future operational environments." Students who complete the course receive a Masters Degree in Military Art and Science."[21]
The AMSP program is intended to produce leaders who, "(1) Are innovative leaders, willing to accept risk and to experiment, (2) Are adaptive leaders who excel at the art of command, (3) Anticipate the future operational environment, (4) Apply critical & creative thinking skills in order to solve complex problems, (5) Demonstrate mastery of Operational Art and Doctrine, (6) Synthesize the elements of US national power in Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental and Multinational (JIIM) operations, [and] (7) Demonstrate Effective Communications."[22]
Following graduation from the AMSP program, officers serve on a "division or corps general staff, or other assignments appropriate to their career field".[23]
The Advanced Operational Art Studies Fellowship is the "senior program" at SAMS, and comprises lieutenant colonels and colonels (or equivalents). This course focuses on the operational and strategic realms of war and "prepares future Colonel-level commanders and operational planners for assignments ... within combatant and service component commands.[21] It encompasses "military theory, military history, strategic studies, regional studies, applied strategy, campaign planning, and practical work in joint planning", and involves "extensive travel".[24] </ref>
This program was begun in 1985 as the Advanced Operational Studies Fellowship (AOASF). Because highly-qualified officers could not remain as faculty permanently, this program was designed to mitigate the effects of periodic faculty reassignments due to operational requirements. The AOSF program allowed students to complete the AMSP in their first year and then serve as the "principal instructor" for the AMSP during their second year. In 1995, the name of the program was changed to its current version.[25]
During the first year, the Fellows’ curriculum includes graduate-level study of military art and science, visits to combatant and service component commands, a robust guest speaker program, and practical exercises in campaign design. Graduates of AOASF earn a Masters Degree in Military Art and Science". In the second half of the course, AOASF students "serve as AMSP graduate-level seminar leaders or other faculty positions as assigned by the SAMS Director". Graduates of the AOASF receive credit as a War College graduate.[21]
The AOASF is designed to graduate "(1) Innovative risk takers willing to experiment, (2) Exceptional commanders, schooled in the art of command, and leaders of campaign planning and strategic and operational design, (3) Creative leaders who can solve complex-adaptive problems at the strategic and theater-strategic levels of conflict, (4) Expert evaluators of the practical strategic and operational implications of cultural differences, (4) Masters at developing and mentoring junior officers, and (5) Demonstrate effective communications."[26]
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