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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
DOD ACTIVATES DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE SCHOOL
On Jan. 1, 1963, the Department of Defense (DoD) activated the Defense Intelligence School (DIS). Under the direction of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the school provided joint intelligence education for DoD military and civilian personnel.
In the post-World War II era, intelligence functions within the DoD were largely organized internally by each military branch. The lack of interservice intelligence sharing and duplication of intelligence operations caused significant problems in the early Cold War. In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower commissioned a joint study group in the mid-1950s that proposed creating an agency to centralize the military attaché system and consolidate intelligence across the various defense services. This eventually led to the establishment of the DIA on Aug. 1, 1961. Soon after the agency became operational that October, discussions between military and government leadership turned to the organization of training and doctrine for defense intelligence staff.
In February 1962, Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric composed a memorandum recommending the creation of a school focused on the “career development of military and civilian intelligence personnel of the Department of Defense” under the direction of the DIA. Training at the proposed school would be aimed at intelligence staff officers and attachés. It would replace the Army Strategic Intelligence School (SIS), established in October 1945 to train attachés and strategic intelligence officers from the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, Central Intelligence Agency, and State Department. The new school would combine the staff, faculties, and facilities of the SIS and the Postgraduate Department of the Naval Intelligence School.
The DIA submitted its formal proposal in June 1962, and on January 1, 1963, the DIS was officially activated with U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Joseph F. Carroll, the first DIA director, serving as its commandant. The school’s mission statement listed three broad functions:
A. Enhance the preparation of selected military officers and key DoD civilian personnel for important command, staff, and policy-making positions in the national and international security structure.
B. Prepare DoD military and civilian personnel for duty in the military attaché system.
C. Assist the broad career development of DoD military and civilian personnel assigned to intelligence functions.
The first classes offered at the school included a nine-month defense intelligence course, sixteen-week military attaché course, four-week strategic intelligence course, eleven-week attaché staff course, and two-week strategic intelligence reserve officer refresher course. The school’s staff and faculty were assigned roughly equally from the different military branches. The first class graduated six months later on Jun. 14, 1963.
In 1980, the school began offering a graduate degree program, the Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence. After it gained regional accreditation, DIS was renamed the Defense Intelligence College and moved to DIA headquarters at Bolling Air Force Base. In the 1990s, budget reductions and post-Cold War restructuring moved many of the training courses, including attaché training, elsewhere in DIA. The school was ultimately renamed the National Intelligence University. It currently operates out of Roberdeau Hall at the Intelligence Community Campus-Bethesda, Maryland, having shifted from the control of the DIA to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in 2021.
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| Date Taken: | 12.26.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.26.2024 09:41 |
| Story ID: | 488309 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 80 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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