Intelligence personnel were a part of the
Continental Army since its initial founding in 1776. In 1776, General
George Washington directed that a reconnaissance unit be created for the
Continental Army.
Knowlton's Rangers, named after its leader
Colonel Thomas Knowlton, became the first organized elite force, a predecessor to modern special operations forces units such as the
Army Rangers,
Delta Force, and others. The "1776" on the United States Army Intelligence Service seal refers to the formation of Knowlton's Rangers. In January 1863,
Major General Joseph Hooker established the
Bureau of Military Information for the
Union Army during the
Civil War, headed by
George H. Sharpe.
Allan Pinkerton and
Lafayette C. Baker handled similar operations for their respective regional commanders. All of those operations were shut down at the end of the Civil War in 1865. In 1885, the Army established the
Military Intelligence Division. In 1903, it was placed under the new general staff in an elevated position. In March 1942, the Military Intelligence Division was reorganized as the
Military Intelligence Service. Originally consisting of just 26 people, 16 of them officers, it was quickly expanded to include 342 officers and 1,000 enlisted personnel and civilians. It was tasked with collecting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence. Initially it included: :* an Administrative Group :* an Intelligence Group :* a Counter-intelligence Group :* an Operations Group :* a Language School In May 1942,
Alfred McCormack established the Special Branch of the Military Intelligence Service, which specialized in
communications intelligence. On 1 January 1942, the
U.S. Army Corps of Intelligence Police, founded in
World War I, was re-designated as the U.S. Army
Counter Intelligence Corps. In 1945, the Special Branch became the
Army Security Agency. On June 19, 1942, the Military Intelligence Training Center at
Camp Ritchie, Maryland, was formed. This group is now widely known as the
Ritchie Boys and are credited with gathering over half of the actionable intelligence in the European Theatre. Most Ritchie Boys were fluent in European languages and could easily interrogate prisoners of war and civilians who knew vital information. At its peak in early 1946, the MIS Language School had 160 instructors and 3,000 students studying in more than 125 classrooms, graduating more than 6,000 students by the end of the war. What began as an experimental military intelligence language-training program launched on a budget of $2,000 eventually became the forerunner of today's
Defense Language Institute for the tens of thousands of linguists who serve American interests throughout the world. The school moved to the
Presidio of Monterey in 1946. Renamed the Army Language School, it expanded rapidly in 1947–48 during the Cold War. Instructors, including native speakers of more than thirty languages and dialects, were recruited from all over the world. Russian became the largest language program, followed by Chinese, Korean, and German. On 1 September 1954, the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) officially redesignated the CIC Center,
Fort Holabird,
Maryland, as the
United States Army Intelligence Center, and the Chief of the Counter Intelligence Corps became its Commanding General. The following year, the Intelligence Center expanded further with the addition of the Photo Interpretation Center. Additionally, combat intelligence training (including order of battle techniques, photo interpretation, prisoner of war interrogation, and censorship) was transferred from the Army General School at
Fort Riley,
Kansas, to Fort Holabird, giving the commanding general the additional title of commandant, U.S. Army Intelligence School. This arrangement centralized nearly all intelligence training at the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School, Fort Holabird. The Intelligence Center and School remained at Fort Holabird until overcrowding during the
Vietnam War forced its relocation to
Fort Huachuca,
Arizona. Fort Huachuca became the "Home of Military Intelligence" on 23 March 1971, and the last class graduated from Fort Holabird on 2 September 1971, almost 17 years to the day after the Army Intelligence Center was established there. USAINTCS Established at Fort. Holabird, MD On 1 July 1962, the Army Intelligence and Security Branch was established as a basic Army branch to meet the increased need for national and tactical intelligence. The redesignated branch came with the creation of a new dagger and sun
branch insignia, replacing the
sphinx insignia that had been in place since 1923. A number of intelligence and security organizations were combined in July 1967 to form the military intelligence branch. In 1977, they recombined with the Army Intelligence Agency and
Army Security Agency to become the
U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. On 1 July 1987, the Military Intelligence Corps was activated as a regiment under the
U.S. Army Regimental System. All United States Army Military Intelligence personnel are members of the Military Intelligence Corps. ==Structure==