USAICoE Historical Document CollectionThis is one of the many training products developed for use at the CIC Training School, Chicago, in the early 1940s.
CIC School established in Chicago
Nov. 10, 1941
The Military Intelligence Division of the US Army established its first substantive school for counterintelligence at the Army War College, Fort McNair, Washington D.C. in February 1941. This Corps of Intelligence Police Investigators Training School quickly outgrew its allotted space.
In November, the school relocated to the Tower Town Club, 820 N. Michigan Ave., in Chicago, and two months later, it was redesignated the Counter Intelligence Corps Investigators Training School.
Influenced heavily by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, training focused on the principles of observation and description, espionage and counterespionage, and undercover work, primarily for duty in the United States or base areas overseas.
The school again moved to larger facilities at 66 E. 11th St. on the South Side of Chicago in November 1942, at which time it became the CIC Advanced Training School. New courses in counter-sabotage, travel control, troop security, and Allied and enemy political intelligence and police systems were taught by combat-experienced instructors. Emphasis shifted to overseas duties where CIC agents were now attached to tactical units.
Before the school transferred to the control of the Provost Marshal General as part of an organizational shakeup in early 1944, 3,000 enlisted personnel and 1,000 officers graduated. For a short time, the MID offered some training for counterintelligence agents at its Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Md. Shortly after World War II ended, however, the CIC Center opened at Fort Holabird, Md., once again providing the Army with a school completely dedicated to the counterintelligence discipline.
“This Week in History” is a feature on the Command History Office website. Those with Army Knowledge Online access can go to their site, https://ikn.army.mil/apps/mi_history/.
