School of Advanced Military Studies - Contributions

Contributions

"I realized that the SAMS guy in the Division HQ was the go-to person for everyone."

SAMS graduates have supported every major U.S. military campaign between 1984 and 2009. 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”. SAMS graduates are known for their "critical thinking skill sets", and are a "commodity called for by combatant commanders around the world today". 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.

The school has earned laudatory comments from various other senior U.S. military leaders. According to Major General David Hogg, "SAMS has a reputation for producing skilled planners that can take complex ideas and develop cohesive plans." In 2010, Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter W. Chiarelli, noted that SAMS was "at the forefront of the effort to remake strategic military planning for the 21st century". 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."