Courtesy Photo | Headquarters of U.S. Army Intelligence School Devens shortly after its transfer to...... read more read more
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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
On October 1, 1976, the U.S. Army Security Agency Training Center and School (ASATC&S) at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, was redesignated the U.S. Army Intelligence School Devens (USAISD). Thereafter subordinate to the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School (USAICS) at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, USAISD continued to conduct training related to signals intelligence (SIGINT) through the early 1990s.
The ASATC&S had been established at Fort Devens as the U.S. Army Security Agency (ASA) School in April 1951 to provide officer and enlisted training in communications analysis, communications security, electronic intelligence, electronic warfare, Morse and non-Morse intercept, and crypto-equipment maintenance. After fifteen years of relatively steady operations punctuated by technological modernization, ASATC&S was about to face “the greatest period of unrest…in the school’s history.”
In 1976, the Intelligence Organization and Stationing Study (IOSS) heralded significant, long-term—one source called them “sweeping, dramatic, and sometimes traumatic”—reforms for the entire Army Intelligence community, all of which impacted ASATC&S. First, IOSS directed the establishment of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. Because ASA formed the foundation of this new command, ASA ceased to exist as a separate organization. IOSS also created organic MI units at corps and division levels, which required a shift from strategic-level training to tactical. Finally, the drive to consolidate all intelligence training led to ASATC&S’s transfer to the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), which placed it under the command of USAICS at Fort Huachuca. Amid all this turmoil, Fort Devens was also being considered for closure or reduction.
Preparing for these monumental changes began a year in advance and proved difficult for personnel at Devens to accept. Reacting to the lowered morale of his organization, Col. Richard B. Mosser penned a poem titled “Uncertainty” with the lines: “In the midst of this perplexity / we must avoid propensity / to act or think negatively / or develop human apathy. / We must fight mediocrity, / keep up our productivity, / maintain high proficiency….” Two months later, the atmosphere remained contrary, leading the new commander, Col. William C. Powell, to challenge his staff to “continue first rate instruction…in the midst of this turmoil.”
When, on October 1, 1976, the ASATC&S became the U.S. Army Intelligence School Devens, it emerged a different institution. Its mission remained constant: to train highly skilled personnel who provided electronic warfare and cryptologic support at both tactical and strategic levels. However, an internal reorganization to TRADOC School Model 76 made the school’s administration and academic elements look like other Army service schools. The school’s curriculum was modified to reflect the shifted focus to tactical training and self-paced, performance-oriented learning. A new training lexicon—simulators, extension courses, Skill Qualification Tests, Individual Training Plans, Soldiers Manuals, and Army Training Evaluation Program—was adopted. Finally, Colonel Powell became deputy commandant of USAISD under the USAICS commander, Brig. Gen. Eugene Kelley, Jr.
This would not be the last period of change for USAISD. In 1982, SIGINT officer training transferred to Fort Huachuca to accommodate the newly established all-source intelligence area of concentration. Then, in December 1988, the earlier specter of closure became reality when the Base Realignment and Closure Committee transferred all USAISD’s remaining training elements to Fort Huachuca. The move happened gradually over two years, but on September 9, 1994, the last class graduated at USAISD. A rear detachment then oversaw the final closure of USAISD in December 1994.
| Date Taken: | 09.27.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 09.27.2022 13:03 |
| Story ID: | 430178 |
| Location: | FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,383 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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