United States Army

Center of Military History

Strategic Plan, 2012–2017
Mission

To accurately collect, preserve, interpret, and express the Army’s history 

and material culture to more broadly educate and develop our force, the 

military profession, and the nation.

Vision

To establish the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) and its products 

as the gold standard for history organizations. By unifying Army historical 

efforts and focusing on operational enhancements, the update and greater 

exploitation of information technologies, professional development, 

history’s relevance to the Army, and the strengthening of strategic 

alliances, we will globally integrate the Army historical community and 

achieve indisputable relevance to the Army and the nation. 

Mission ∙ Vision ∙ Values
Values

Loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor 

and integrity, personal courage, objectivity, 

scholarship, and stewardship

Strategic Plan, 2012–2017

The Center’s strategic plan has the following five 

focus areas:

1) Operational Enhancement

2) Knowledge Management

3) Enhancement of Relevance

4) Strategic Alliances

5) Professional Development

Detail from Infantry Soldiers by Roger Blum, Army Art Collection
Operational Enhancement

Focus Area 1: Operational Enhancement 

The Army historical community is a diverse organization. The combined skills, 

expertise, and experiences are essential to continued success and relevance 

in a fluid global environment. Therefore, it is imperative that this knowledge 

base be recognized and tapped to meet the heightened and complex demands 

of the Army in the twenty-first century.

Thus, a long-range priority of the Center is to increase the visibility of the 

activities of the entire Army historical community, making its expertise available 

and known to a wider and significant audience. CMH’s increased awareness of 

and involvement with other Army historical organizations will assist them in 

obtaining resources and will support their value and relevance to Army senior 

leaders, as well as position the Center to actively defend the Army Historical 

Program in its expanded entirety. This greater participation also enhances 

coordination and synergy across the entire Army historical community. The 

Center must know about all organizations’ activities, so that it can convey 

organizational successes as successes for the Army Historical Program writ large. 

In order to accomplish this, the Secretary of the Army has endorsed 

the Center’s concept to reorganize the Army historical community. This 

reorganization would offer a number of benefits: it streamlines command 

and control, ensures continued funding for historical programs, creates 

opportunities for reductions in mission redundancy, and enhances personnel 

management efficiencies. 

Above, detail from Bailey’s Pre-Combat Checks by Christopher W. Thiel, Army 

Art Collection
Strategic Goal

To improve our business processes and create a superior history and 

museum structure to meet the demands of a globally engaged Army 

in the twenty-first century. 

Objectives

OE -1 Functionally Align the Army Historical Community: This objective 

requires a centralization of many of the elements of the Army 

historical community under the Center. Through this realignment, 

three functional lines will be organized: 1) History Functions will pull 

together select history offices and the Combat Studies Institute into 

one historical organization; 2) Archives Functions will include the 

Center’s library and the Military History Institute; and 3) Museum 

Functions will comprise all Army museums, the National Museum 

of the United States Army (NMUSA), and the Army Heritage Museum. 

(Lead: Executive Director, Chief Historian, and Strategic Planner)

OE-2 Leverage Staff Expertise: Leaders at all levels will seek opportunities 

to form cross-functional project teams to better leverage the vast 

expertise and experiences of the diverse Army historical workforce. 

Cross-functional teams may also include professionals from 

academia and the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), Air Force (USAF), Navy 

(USN), joint staff, combined, and Department of Defense (DoD) 

historical organizations, as well as other government agencies 

and contractors. Employing a collaborative project management 

approach using multidisciplinary teams for selected and suitable 

tasks allows the organization to move beyond the traditional 

organizational and functional boundaries to focus on problem 

solving, add necessary rigor to processes, and improve customer 

satisfaction. Additionally, cross-functional teams provide flexibility, 

continuous coordination and integration control, and speed, 

which, when coupled with multidisciplinary expertise, results in 

enhanced historical support to the Army and the nation. These will 

be included as a specific evaluative criteria as part of each leader’s 

annual performance objectives. 

Cross-functional project teams may consist of members from 

various branches within one division, members of various divisions, 

and/or members from the Center and other organizations such as 

the Training and Doctrine Command, a sister service, academia, the 

Smithsonian Institution, and so forth. Examples of the type of tasks 
that may be suitable for cross-functional teams include but are not limited 

to the following: exhibit design, conservation of materials, any process 

improvement initiative (such as Lineage and Honors backlog reduction 

and inquiry tracking systems), “marketing” planning, development of 

standard operating procedures, and special projects such as participation 

in the annual Association of the United States Army conference and Career 

Program 61 special committees. (Lead: Chief Historian, Deputy Director, 

and Strategic Planner)

OE-3 Improve Theater Collection: The Center must improve its theater 

collection capabilities to ensure the Army’s actions of today are recorded, 

analyzed, and made available for historical perspective tomorrow. This 

entails enhancing our collection, processing, and reporting of historical 

information, data, and artifacts associated with current combat, crisis, and 

contingency operations. To do so requires addressing three major pillars: 

1) Improving Military History Detachment (MHD) and field historian 

training for both military and civilian historians; 2) Coordinating the 

assignment of an Army officer historian as the theater historian; and 3) 

Improving integration of and coordination, communications, and support 

among the theater historian, the theater command, and the Center of 

Military History. (Lead: Executive Director, Chief Historian, Strategic Planner, 

and Chief, Field Programs and Historical Services Division)

OE-4 Improve Military History Detachment Utility: This is a threefold 

objective: 1) Professionalize the field historian community including 

officers, noncommissioned officers, and civilians by partnering with 

academically accredited institutions, such as the U.S. Army War College, 

to develop a much improved training program that consists of a basic 

and advanced course; 2) Strengthen the bond between the Center of 

Military History and MHDs through more frequent interaction and 

active duty training assignments at the Center to execute specified tasks 

such as predeployment and postdeployment briefings to the Executive 

Director, through review of the organization and processing of collected 

materials, and through examination of redeployed units not covered by 

MHDs while in theater; and 3) Improve management and control of 5X 

designation/5X proponency and develop additional and similar warrant 

and noncommissioned officer skill identifiers. (Lead: Chief Historian, 

Strategic Planner, and Chief, Field Programs and Historical Services Division)

OE-5 Centralize and Charter Museums: Our museum program must build 

efficiencies through centralization of selected Army museums and 

collections so as to support the field museums and the success of the 
National Museum of the United States Army project. The key to 

this initiative will be carefully structured and monitored collection 

plans and activities. We can no longer afford to collect outside our 

“charter areas.” Adept collections management will be the chief 

means to this end, which will be accomplished under the auspices 

of a revised AR 870–20 to be published in 2013. (Lead: Chief, 

Museum Division, and Strategic Planner)

OE-6 Create an Environmentally Aware Culture: The Army’s 

environmental vision is to “integrate environmental values into 

its mission in order to sustain readiness, improve the Soldier’s 

quality of life, strengthen community relationships, and provide 

sound stewardship of resources.” The Center of Military History 

will develop and execute policies and practices that support the 

Army vision of environmental stewardship. This includes but is not 

limited to practices that cover energy utilization, recycling, and use 

of solvents and other materials associated with the conservation 

and restoration of artifacts across the entire Army historical 

community. The intent is to inculcate environmental stewardship 

into the culture of the Army historical community. (Lead: Deputy 

Director and Executive Officer)

OE-7 Establish a Support Relationship with the Department of the Army 

Office of General Counsel (OGC): The Center of Military History 

currently lacks dedicated legal support. The scope of the Center’s 

operations and programs frequently present significant legal 

challenges. By establishing a dedicated support relationship with 

OGC, the Center will be able to access the necessary and focused 

legal counsel it requires. In so doing, OGC would be in a position 

to provide timely legal oversight, coordination, and advice, thus 

enabling and enhancing the Center’s operations and programs. 

(Lead: Executive Director and Strategic Planner)

Above, soldiers of the 305th Military History Detachment in Afghanistan
Focus Area 2: Knowledge Management

Knowledge management (KM) is a concept that promotes an integrated 

approach to identifying, retrieving, evaluating, and sharing an enterprise’s 

tacit (what people know) and explicit (documentary) information. First, the 

KM process focuses on the people and the institutional culture by creating 

and fostering an environment of sharing and collaboration between 

soldiers and Army civilians. Second, it encourages the transformation of 

processes into systems that will better support the Army’s mission. Third, 

it promotes the use of smart technologies to empower Army personnel to 

produce more effective results.

Strategic Goal

The Center of Military History’s KM goal is to align itself with Army 

knowledge management initiatives by leveraging twenty-first-century best 

practices and technology to transform our culture and historical information 

into an asset of more value and relevance to the Army. 

Above, under CMH digitization initiatives, archival documents are scanned and 

stored on computer servers. 

Knowledge Management
Objectives

KM-1 People and Culture: The heart of any organization is its people 

and their culture. The Army’s knowledge management principles 

describe the goal of creating a culture of better information 

sharing and collaboration within work groups, divisions, 

and across the Army. The Center is an information-intensive 

organization with highly specialized Army historians and curators. 

Those historians and curators require efficient ways to search, 

categorize, and use the information flowing into the Center from 

deployed units and other sources to generate quality historical 

and material culture products in a timely manner. This objective 

will focus on developing effective training and doctrine that will 

facilitate a more collaborative culture between historians and 

curators, resulting in their increased value to the Army. (Lead: 

Knowledge Management Officer and Strategic Planner)

KM-2 Agile and Integrated Processes—Design and Implement a 

Knowledge and Information Management Architecture Plan: This 

objective is to determine what is required to connect “those 

who know” with “those who need to know” by identifying and 

developing integrated processes within the Center and across the 

Army historical community. The current technical information 

management infrastructure that supports and manages the large 

volume of historical information is marginal and is not aligned 

with the Army’s regulations and KM initiatives. The Knowledge 

and Information Management Architecture Plan will become the 

Center’s roadmap for the future Web-based and CAC (common 

access card)-enabled Army historical information network. (Lead: 

Knowledge Management Officer and Strategic Planner)

KM-3 Collaboration and Information-sharing Technologies: The Army 

historical research community is geographically dispersed yet 

requires ready access to a variety of documents, often one-of-akind, stored in large multimedia collections in many different 

locations. The solution is to create a robust and scalable content 

management system (CMS) for hosting, managing, and making 

available historical documents at all times. CMS technology is 

specifically designed to manage the many complex documents in 

the Center’s historical collections. The CMS must be Web-based, 

feature an advanced search capability, include a collaborative 

ability, and meet DoD and Army requirements. The CMS will 
become the core Army historical information network system. (Lead: 

Knowledge Management Officer and Strategic Planner)

KM-4 Develop a Knowledge Capture Plan: The Center is the repository for and 

coordinator of many one-of-a-kind historical documents. In addition 

to storing documents, it produces finished historical products such as 

scholarly publications, lineage and honors certificates, and information 

papers. Such finished products 

constitute the core “knowledge” of the 

Center as opposed to simply raw and 

unprocessed information. Electronic 

documents, printed materials, and 

other physical media–based collections 

(such as publications, papers, photos, 

audio, video, maps, and oral history 

transcriptions) are in the magnitude of 

hundreds, and possibly thousands, of 

terabytes. The plan will be to analyze 

all of the Center’s raw information and 

prepared publications by collection 

and determine the volume, the 

frequency of usage, the condition, the 

physical media types, the indexing 

requirement, and the priority for 

digitizing to searchable media. 

 Much of the Center’s new raw data 

comes from the Military History Detachments and other field collection 

programs, and, although much of it is electronic, it is in the native 

software format and generally not indexed. This information is used by 

the historians to write the Army’s official histories and other products. 

This information must be transformed into a common searchable PDF 

format for easy retrieval and use while preserving the original formats. 

Currently, the Center has over thirty terabytes of data in its files, and it 

continues to receive several additional terabytes per year. 

The Center is also a repository for historical correspondence, information 

papers, authority publications, and circulars that not only document 

the evolution of the Army, but the evolution of policy, doctrine, force 

structure, and military education as well. This institutional information 

needs to be available to support operational management and professional 

development initiatives. The knowledge capture plan will detail the results 

Lineage and honors certificates 
of the analysis and generate a requirements document describing 

the resources needed to prepare the media for improved electronic 

access and use by the Army historical community. (Lead: Knowledge 

Management Officer and Strategic Planner)

KM-5 Develop a Content-based Web and Social Media Strategy: DoD 

and Army regulations require nonsensitive information to be 

accessible to the public. The Web and various social media outlets 

are excellent venues for sharing this type of information with the 

public, approaches the Center is already familiar with through the 

success of the its Web site. The Center’s Web site is document-rich 

but uses fifteen-year-old technology. To maintain and expand 

the Web site with newly available electronic information, it will 

have to be redesigned and the documents migrated to a content 

management–based 

system. The objective 

for the new Web site is 

to develop a structure 

that will increase the 

speed of uploading 

new documents 

and facilitate 

easier access of 

information through 

comprehensive 

search capabilities, 

while reducing 

the maintenance 

requirements. The 

result will improve 

information sharing 

and better meet the 

needs of the military 

history community. 

(Lead: Knowledge 

Management Officer 

and Strategic Planner)

Artifact registration 

and cataloging 
Enhancement of Relevance

Focus Area 3: Enhancement of Relevance

The Army Historical Program must remain as relevant today and in the 

future as it has in the past. As demonstrated in recent conflicts, history 

must remain the foundation on which Army training, education, esprit 

de corps, and decision making is inevitably based. The lessons of the past 

form the doctrines of the future; they cannot be based on poorly recorded 

or understood events. History is the laboratory and the database for 

learning about war in all its dimensions. It is as valuable to the individual 

soldier for training as to the highest-level leaders for making critical 

decisions about the Army’s future. Soldiers and units bond and fight based 

on a common historical heritage. The accurate recording, analysis, and 

dissemination of past operations, institutional changes, unit lineages, and 

command decisions at all levels is thus an essential part of the Army’s 

ability to meet the demands of the future. 

Above, detail from Two Soldiers On Night Patrol by Harold Von Schmidt, Army 

Art Collection
Strategic Goal

Reaffirm the recognizable, invaluable, and indisputable value of the 

Army Historical Program to the Army and the nation.

Objectives

ER-1 Facilitate the Establishment of the National Museum of the U.S. 

Army (NMUSA): Success of the NMUSA project is 

vital to the visibility and relevance of the Army 

Historical Program. We will continue to defend 

and facilitate the development of the NMUSA 

at Fort Belvoir. This is a twofold objective: 

1) The Center will work with NMUSA on the 

development of its concept plan, exhibit plan, 

and organization. 2) NMUSA will return to the 

Center as a functional museum on or about 14 

June 2015. (Lead: Executive Director, Strategic 

Planner, and Chief, Museum Division)

ER-2 Reinforce Indisputable Relevance to Senior 

Army Leadership: This requires quality 

products and services that add value because they are accurate, 

timely, and speak directly to senior Army leaders’ challenges and 

concerns. The Center’s leaders at all levels are thus responsible 

to apply necessary rigor, exceptional standards of quality 

control, and the appropriate perspective on the development, 

presentation, and accuracy of all products and services, not just 

for the senior Army leadership, but for the nation as a whole. 

This will be included as a specific evaluative criteria as part 

of each leader’s annual performance objectives. (Lead: Chief 

Historian and Deputy Director)

ER-3 Maintain a Strong Physical Presence in the Pentagon: It is 

imperative that the Center be fully represented and integral to 

decision making and policy development at the highest levels 

of the Army and the Department of Defense. The ability to 

reaffirm indisputable relevance greatly depends on the ready 

access to historical services and products by senior Army leaders. 

The Center will maintain a visible and credible presence in the 

Pentagon with a representative each from the Histories and 

Museum Divisions. (Lead: Chief, Histories Division, and Chief, 

Museum Division)
ER-4 Expand Influence with the Army Staff: An important activity in 

enhancing relevance is establishing a better relationship with the Army 

Staff. Combined with ER-2 and ER-3, the Center’s senior leaders will 

conduct office calls with Army Staff principals. Other Center leaders 

(such as the Deputy Director, Strategic Planner, Division Chiefs, and 

Executive Officer) will establish contact with action officers of the 

Army Staff. In so doing, we will educate the Army Staff on the Center’s 

capabilities, accessibility, and value. (Lead: Executive Director, Chief 

Historian, Deputy Director, Strategic Planner, Division Chiefs, and 

Executive Officer)

ER-5 Reinforce the Army’s Official History Writing Program: The centerpiece 

of the continued relevance of the Army Historical Program is official 

history. Center historians will proceed to uphold the highest academic 

standards of scholarship and objectivity in their creation of a wide 

variety of historical products that support the Army. The Center will 

complete the Vietnam War official histories, lay a firm foundation for 

the generation of Cold War official histories, and generate first- and 

second-tier products to refine our knowledge of Army operations in the 

Global War on Terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other theaters. Finally, 

the Center will continue to support the Army’s commemorative efforts 

on the Civil War, the War of 1812, World War I, and the Vietnam War by 

highlighting the importance of history and heritage to our veterans, our 

Army, and our nation. (Lead: Chief Historian and Chief, Histories Division)
Focus Area 4: Strategic Alliances

Strengthening strategic alliances with historical organizations outside 

the Army, such as those under the Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy, 

joint staff, combined commands, and Department of Defense and 

regional, national, and international historical associations, as well as 

academia, broadens our historical perspectives, creates opportunities 

for professional discourse and development for our workforce, 

and establishes the Army Historical Program as a globally relevant 

historical organization. 

Strategic Goal

To achieve greater effectiveness, enhance credibility, and expand 

influence of the Army historical community.

Objectives

SA-1 Strengthen Alliances: Communities of interest that include 

organizations such as the Society for Military History, American 

Association of Museums, Company of Military Historians, veterans 

organizations, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, U.S. 

Commission on Military History, along with academia, international 

associations, and historical organizations of the USMC, USAF, 

USN, joint staff, combined commands, and DoD will continue to 

play a vital role in the success of the Army Historical Program. 

Strengthening these alliances allows for shared best practices, a 

generation of new and innovative ideas, international visibility, and 

access to resources not traditionally available in the Army system. 

Leaders at all levels will seek opportunities to enable, guide, 

manage, and, when appropriate, support employee participation in 

professional conferences, advisory boards, working groups, special 

programs, academic forums, and so forth. This will be added 

as a specific evaluative criteria as part of each leader’s annual 

performance objectives. (Lead: Chief Historian and Deputy Director)

Strategic Alliances

Above, detail from Road March by Jeffrey T. Manuszak, Army Art Collection
Professional Development

Focus Area 5: Professional Development

Our most valuable resource is our people. Long-term sustainability of the 

Army Historical Program mandates the continued professional development 

of a diverse and talented workforce encompassing a broad range of skills, 

knowledge, and abilities. A professional workforce requires well defined and 

resourced career programs that challenge, inspire, and reward top performers. 

Such a program must position for success an intellectually agile, flexible, and 

innovative culture that adheres to the highest standards of professionalism 

and the values of the U.S. Army and the Center of Military History.

Strategic Goal

To provide a highly motivated and dedicated workforce that has superior 

professional capabilities and skills.

Above, detail from Tailgating Over The Valley by Martin J. Cervantez, Army 

Art Collection; right, in July 2011 CMH leaders conduct a staff ride outlining the 

defenses of Washington during the Civil War. 
Objectives

PD-1 Implement Career Program 61: This recently authorized career 

program is designed to develop a cadre of historical and 

museum professionals. The overall goal is to establish a robust 

career map beginning at the entry level that will outline and 

highlight the recruitment, training, education, and professional 

development needs of the career historian and museum 

workforce over the course of an entire career. Career Program 

61 contains three primary efforts: 1) Recruitment—Develop 

recruitment programs to attract individuals who possess the 

critical attributes necessary to develop into or serve as highly 

qualified and motivated historical and museum professionals; 

2) Development—Provide professional development to a 

diverse and highly qualified workforce and promote a work 

environment that fosters and rewards professional development, 

lifelong learning, and scholarship; and 3) Retention—Retain 

these professionals and assign them throughout the Army in 

positions of increasing responsibility. (Lead: Chief Historian)

PD-2 Develop and Implement a Leadership and Professional 

Development Program Management System: This strategic initiative 

extends beyond historical and museum professionals and 

includes all career specialties represented in the organization. 

Professional development is the process of training, developing, 
and promoting employees throughout an organization. While it does 

not preclude bringing in outside talent, internally developed leaders 

can be extremely valuable assets because they have been groomed in 

the Army historical community culture, have internalized the values 

of the organization, and are professionally invested in its long-term 

success. Leadership and professional development opportunities are 

a matter of strategic human resource management and thus shifts the 

responsibility for human capital management to managers at all levels. 

The traditional human resource function continues as an administrative 

service. Managers will at a minimum: 1) Ensure each employee has a 

viable individual development plan (IDP); 2) Ensure counseling sessions 
are conducted routinely, documented, and have included 

discussions on performance and future potential, as well as 

a review of the IDP; 3) Ensure employees have opportunities 

for developmental assignments, internal mobility within the 

Army historical community, leadership experience, and crossfunctional team participation; 4) Ensure employees have 

opportunities to participate in a mentorship program; and 

5) Recognize and reward successes. These will be included as 

a specific evaluative criteria as part of each leader’s annual 

performance objectives. A Program Executive Review Board 

(membership to be determined) will be established to conduct 

corporate quarterly reviews of the following: 1) IDP creation, 

progress and success of implementation relative to resources; 

2) effectiveness, timeliness, and accuracy of rewards and 

recognitions; and 3) value and assignment of past, current, and 

potential developmental and leadership opportunities. (Lead: 

Chief Historian, Deputy Director, and Strategic Planner)

Top left, artifact exhibition and conservation; above, Army recruiting 

poster, 1930, Army Art Collection
CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY

Mr. Robert J. Dalessandro, Director

Robert.Dalessandro@us.army.mil 

Dr. Richard W. Stewart, Chief Historian

Richard.Stewart2@us.army.mil 

COL Conrado B. Morgan, Deputy Director

Conrado.B.Morgan@us.army.mil 

Mr. Gerald Torrence, Strategic Planner

Gerald.Torrence@us.army.mil 

Dr. Joel D. Meyerson, Chief, Histories Division

Joel.Meyerson@us.army.mil 

Dr. Charles H. Cureton, Chief, Museum Division

Charles.H.Cureton@us.army.mil

Dr. R. Scott Moore, Chief, Field Programs and Historical Services Division 

Scott.Moore8@us.army.mil

COMBAT STUDIES INSTITUTE 

COL Roderick M. Cox, Director

Roderick.M.Cox.mil@mail.mil 

U.S. ARMY HERITAGE AND EDUCATION CENTER

Mr. Thomas L. Hendrix, Director

Thomas.Hendrix1@us.army.mil

U.S. ARMY TRAINING AND DOCTRINE COMMAND

Dr. J. Britt McCarley, Chief Historian

Britt.Mccarley@us.army.mil

U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

COL Lance Betros, Professor and Head

Lance.Betros@usma.edu