Historical Activities
Under the direction of the Chief of Military history and his principal adviser, the Army’s Chief Historian, CMH’s staff is involved in some 50 major writing projects. Many of these efforts involve new research that ranges from traditional studies in operational and administrative history to the examination of such areas as procurement, peacekeeping, and the global war on terror. Those works under way and projected are described in the Army Historical Program, an annual report to the Chief of Staff on the Army’s historical activities. All Center publications currently in print are listed in the catalog Publications of the United States Army Center of Military History, which explains how to access them. Many publications also appear on the Center’s Web site.
In addition, Army historians maintain the organizational history of Army units, allowing the Center to provide units of the Regular Army, the Army National Guard, and the Army Reserve with certificates of their lineage and honors and other historical material concerning their organizations. The Center also determines the official designations for Army units and works with the Army Staff during force reorganizations to preserve units with significant histories, as well as unit properties and related historical artifacts.
Underscoring the importance of oral history to an understanding of the past, CMH serves as a clearinghouse for the oral history programs in the Army at all levels of command. It also conducts and preserves its own oral history collections, including those from the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and the many recent contingency operations. In addition, the Center’s end-of-tour interviews within the Army Secretariat and Staff provide a basis for its annual histories of the Department of the Army.
As tangible representations of the service’s mission, military artifacts and art enhance the soldier’s understanding of the profession of arms. CMH manages a system of more than 120 Army museums and their holdings, encompassing some 450,000 artifacts and 15,000 works of military art. The Center also provides professional museum training, staff assistance visits, teams of combat artists such as those deployed under the Vietnam Combat Artists Program, and general museum support throughout the Army. Current projects include the establishment of a National Army Museum at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and a complementary Army Heritage and Educational Center at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
The Chief of Military History is responsible for ensuring the appropriate use of military history in the teaching of strategy, tactics, logistics, and administration. This mission includes a requirement that military leaders at all levels be aware of the value of history in advancing military professionalism. To that end, the Center holds a biennial history conference and workshop; publishes Army History, a professional bulletin devoted to informing the larger military history education community; and supplies readings for the Army school system, including the ROTC community, and texts and other support for the Army’s staff ride program. In this effort, the Chief of Military History is assisted by a historical advisory committee that includes leading academic historians and representatives of the Army school system.
Staff rides enable military leaders to retrace the course of a battle on the ground, deepening their understanding of the recurring fundamentals of military operations. As one of the Army’s major teaching devices, staff rides are particularly dependent on a careful knowledge of military history. Center historians lead rides directed by the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff and attended by senior members of the Army Staff.
The responsibilities of the Chief of Military History have also thrust the Center into the national and international historical arena. It administers the Army’s far-flung Command History Program, to provide historical support to Army organizations worldwide. In addition, since the first Persian Gulf War, the Center has coordinated the deployment of military history detachments and the collection of historical data during peacekeeping and wartime operations, including those in northern Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Read more about this topic: United States Army Center Of Military History
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