FOUNDATION NEWS, No. 2/Fall 2007 (October 2007)

DDE: New name, new technology,
but same focus for 100 years

By Kelvin D. Crow, CGSC Command History

Extending the reach of its knowledge has long been a part of the Command and General Staff College mission and the name of the program and its components have gone through several incarnations to that end. As part of the ongoing change and improvements in delivering on its mission to deliver the Army’s Intermediate Level of Education (ILE) to all Majors in the Active, Guard and Reserve forces, CGSC’s “Department of Distance Education (DDE)” was renamed from the “School of Advanced distributed Learning (SAdL)” in Summer 2007.

According to Tim Nenninger’s study of The Leavenworth Schools nonresident or corresponding instruction for the Command and General Staff College begins with the Fort Leavenworth “mailing list.” Starting in 1905 professional military journals printed tactical problems from the Leavenworth curriculum and, in succeeding issues, their solution. In 1907 the school formally printed up instructional materials and made them available to anyone who wrote to request being put on the mailing list. Textbooks were available to these informal students at reduced prices. Before the school closed for the First World War more than 4,000 officers were on this list.

Formal nonresident instruction was recommended by the 1922 McGlachlin Board established by Gen. Pershing. A War Department order dated 1923 directed the establishment of “Corresponding Studies” to broaden Leavenworth’s influence throughout the Army and a correspondence training program, known as “Correspondence Course D,” was added in the publications division. This three-year program was aimed at National Guard officers, Reserve officers and certain civilian personnel. The “Command and General Staff Correspondence School” first appeared in 1926. Instructors assigned to the program began teaching courses in several local communities in addition to the classic correspondence format. In 1931 the name changed to the “Command and General Staff Extension Course.” The extension course section is not listed in CGSC’s organizational charts in 1944 or 1945.

Over the years there were numerous additional name changes but the intent of the department has remained the same. Today, as it celebrates its centennial the DDE mission is to develop leaders prepared to execute full-spectrum joint, interagency and multinational operations through non-traditional means. DDE develops, distributes and administers the Command and General Staff College’s distance learning programs to Active and Reserve Component officers from all services and allied nations. This mission sounds strikingly familiar to the original intent established in 1905 and carried throughout the 20th century. The focus remains on learning and the program is enhanced by the obvious advantages of today’s web-based technologies and systems to deliver the information to students.