The U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) develops and leads staff rides for organizations and units looking to incorporate a battlefield or other historically significant event as an outdoor classroom as part of their unit training program.
A CMH Staff Ride facilitator leads a group from the Joint Staff on a staff ride of the Harper’s Ferry battlefield.
Staff rides are designed to apply military history to professional military education and development. They use military history as a vehicle to promote critical thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, and the exercise of creativity as applied to military decision-making. Staff rides use terrain and battle and campaign histories to help individuals and organizations understand the challenges of leadership, operational art, strategy, and to experience and appreciate the timeless aspects and complexities of decision-making in the context of combat. A staff ride is not a battlefield tour or a leisure recreational activity. Units seeking battlefield tours should contact the National Park Service or tourism organizations. CMH will gladly and professionally facilitate staff rides as a valuable training event for organizations and units with tailored themes and training objectives that CMH will assist units to develop if necessary.
The staff ride requires detailed preparation and active participation by members of an organization, with CMH experts providing training, guidance, and mentoring to help the organization meet its objectives. Please note that the requesting unit/organization is responsible for all logistical and administrative issues, to include transportation, meals, and personnel accountability. Any transportation costs or any associated TDY costs for CMH historian(s) must be paid by the requesting organization.
CMH’s Target Audience: Priority will be given to the Joint Staff, the Army Staff, TRADOC staff and units, Foreign Delegations and Liaison Officers, and other Army General Officer level commands. CMH also seeks to provide support to Army and government organizations within the greater National Capital Region (NCR). All other units will be supported as we are able. If we cannot support your staff ride directly, we will provide you with resources to help you execute your training.
CMH Support Requirements: If within the NCR, CMH can generally support staff ride requests with little to no out-of-pocket expense to the unit. If CMH personnel must travel outside the NCR, then any transportation costs or any associated TDY costs for CMH historian(s) must be paid by the unit. This could be a local DTS voucher for mileage if within the greater NCR, or could involve significant TDY-associated costs if multi-day travel is necessary outside of the greater NCR. These associated costs depend on the staff ride location selected. Depending on your group size, multiple CMH historians may be required to support. We generally recommend a ratio of one historian for every 25 participants. This keeps group sizes manageable for ease of communication and maneuver on the staff ride.
Staff Ride Execution
A staff ride consists of three phases and an After-Action Review (AAR):
1) The Preliminary Study Phase consists of a class session designed to prepare unit participants for its visit to the actual terrain of the battle or campaign. The preliminary study phase can be completed in person or via MS Teams. If the unit does not wish or cannot schedule a class, as a minimum, participants MUST read the read-ahead materials provided by CMH.
2) The Field Study Phase incorporates and continues the efforts of the preliminary phase by placing the unit on the actual terrain and expanding upon their knowledge and analysis of the significance of the events across the terrain.
3) The Integration Phase consists of a formal or informal opportunity for individuals and the unit to reflect upon their collective staff ride experience, building upon the preliminary and field study phases, in an effort to analyze the terrain’s effects and the possible enduring lessons that can be drawn from the event to apply in the contemporary context.
4) The AAR provides a vehicle for both the unit and CMH to review desired outcomes and training objectives of the staff ride. The AAR is critical to allow both organizations to learn and incorporate feedback from the facilitators and the target audience to make future training events more productive and valuable for each organization.
Staff Ride Methodology (units will select one or more methods to employ during the staff ride):
Role-Playing – Allows staff riders to assume the persona of a major military or civilian actor. Individual participants become a limited subject-matter expert for their character. Along with fellow role players of equal preparation, this methodology facilitates a rich and triangulated discussion among participants.
Socratic Dialogue – This methodology solicits engagement among the entire group rather than targeting single participants to summarize the actions of selected characters.
Operational Decision Gaming – “Reenactment” in the Clausewitzian sense of the term places the participant in the mind of the decision-maker at critical decision points in a campaign or battle to walk through why a decision was made, without the prejudice of what occurred historically. The idea is for students not to judge historical leadership in an operation, but to develop their own solutions to problems given the same knowledge as the historical leader. In doing so, the student exercises true critical thinking via analysis and creativity.
Devil’s Advocate – Participants react to opinions expressed in the above techniques and challenge them with different points of view/strategies. Employing this methodology prompts participants to consider multiple perspectives and a variety of strategies/tactics employed by leaders during the battle/campaign.
Current CMH Staff Ride Offerings:
American Revolution:
Lexington & Concord
Brandywine/ Valley Forge
Trenton / Princeton
West Point
Monmouth Court House
Saratoga
Yorktown
Civil War:
First Bull Run
1862 Peninsula Campaign
Second Bull Run
1862 Maryland Campaign & Antietam
Fredericksburg
Chancellorsville
Gettysburg
Wilderness/Spotsylvania
Petersburg/Appomattox
Lincoln Assassination (Non-Traditional)
John Wilkes Booth Escape (Non-Traditional)
World War I:
Cantigny
2nd Marne
Meuse-Argonne
Belleau Wood
Saint-Mihiel
Bonus Army (1932) (Non-Traditional)
World War II:
Normandy
Salerno
Anzio
Nuremberg / Dachau
Huertgen Forest
Battle of the Bulge
WWII Mobilization (Non-Traditional)
Other: