School of Advanced Military Studies

The School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) is one of three United States Army schools that make up the United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This "enormously rigorous" graduate school comprises two programs: the larger Advanced Military Studies Program (AMSP), and the Advanced Operational Art Studies Fellowship (AOASF), which more senior officers attend. The student body is small, but diverse; members of each of the U.S. armed forces, various U.S. Government agencies, and allied military forces attend the school. Graduates are colloquially known as "Jedi Knights".

The school, which issues a masters degree in Military Art and Science, provides its graduates with the skills necessary to deal with the disparate challenges encountered in contemporary military and government operations. The modern course produces "leaders with the flexibility of mind to solve complex operational and strategic problems in peace, conflict, and war". Various senior military leaders have recognized the contributions of SAMS graduates in support of global contingency operations since the school's inception.

The first class started in the summer of 1983 and graduated 13 students about a year later. Due to increasing requirements for SAMS graduates in the U.S. military, the Army expanded the school in the 1990s. The 2010 graduating class comprised over 120 students. Since the first class graduated, SAMS planners have supported every major U.S. military campaign, providing the Army "with many of its top campaign planners for the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries".

Read more about School Of Advanced Military Studies:  History, Contributions, The Course, Notable Graduates

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