A milestone in the history of Army intelligence occurred on 1 July 1987. As the Military Intelligence Branch celebrated its 25th anniversary, the Military Intelligence (Ml) Corps was activated at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. All military intelligence personnel worldwide became part of the U.S. Army Regimental System which had been approved by the Chief of Staff, Army in December 1985 for the purpose of promoting esprit de corps.
The regimental system dates back to the 1600's when King Charles II saw it as the best way to organize a full-time standing British Army. He established a fixed number of regiments, each commanded by a colonel. This ended the traditional practice of the king commissioning elite members of society as colonels to raise troops whenever a war needed fighting.
In 1981, the Chief of Staff, Army decided to implement this system into an American version of a modern American Army. Unlike the combat arms branches, which are subdivided into numbered regiments and structured similar to brigades, Ml was to have only one regimental organization-the Ml Corps.
The "whole branch" concept recognizes the difficulty of repetitively assigning Ml soldiers to the same unit, which is the goal of combat arms regiments. Organizing all personnel in the branch-into-the-same regimental organization is particularly appropriate for Ml. This is true because three distinct segments of Army intelligence have united together to perform all-source intelligence for commanders from the United States President on down.
All soldiers and civilians are organized into the same regimental organization, merging the three segments of human intelligence (HUMINT), signal intelligence (SIGINT), and imagery intelligence (IMINT) together to perform all-source intelligence. Activation of the Ml Corps was the formal recognition of this cohesiveness.
The chief of Military Intelligence -- the head of the Ml Corps -- is also the commander of the US Army Intelligence Center and School at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The US Army Intelligence Center and School has become the "Home of Ml." Each regiment or corps has an honorary colonel who is a retired high-ranking officer who made significant contributions while in uniform; an honorary sergeant major who retired as a senior noncommissioned officer with a highly distinguished record of military service; and a number of distinguished members.
The Military Intelligence Corps Crest is an oriental blue shield
with a golden sphinx superimposed over the crossed key and lightning
bolt. Below the sheild on a scroll is the Military Intelligence
Corp Motto - "Always Out Front." Oriental blue
is symbolic of coolness and courage. The sphinx symbolizes wisdom
and silence. The color gold symbolizes achievement. The key is
symbolic of security and control. And the lightning bolt signifies
worldwide electrical communications.