Army Logistician (ALMC: 50 Years of Excellence)

The Army Logistics Management College (ALMC) at Fort Lee, Virginia, celebrates its 50th anniversary in July. The college began as the 12-week Army Supply Management Course, which was established on 1 July 1954. The first class was made up of 14 members of the staff and faculty and 20 officers and civilians occupying key managerial positions in the Army’s supply system.

The curriculum of the Army Supply Management Course grew until May 1956, when General Orders No. 15 established the Army Logistics Management Center as a class II activity under the administrative jurisdiction of the Quartermaster General and the operational control of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics. These orders also designated the Supply Management Course as a subordinate activity of ALMC and established additional management courses in procurement, requirements, distribution, maintenance, and property disposal.

Between 1956 and 1962, ALMC developed nonresident courses and added research functions to its mission. During that time, the curriculum was expanded to include correspondence courses and the use of accredited instructors in off-campus modes, and training of international and Reserve component officers began.

In August 1962, ALMC was placed under the command of the Army Materiel Command (AMC). In October 1991, ALMC became an Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) school under the command of the Army Combined Arms Support Command.

ALMC began operating the Department of Defense Satellite Education Network in January 1985. Control of the Satellite Education Network was transferred to the Army Training Support Center in 1992. However, the Satellite Education Network continues to be located at ALMC.

ALMC was redesignated as the Army Logistics Management College in 1987. Designation as a college represented a significant achievement in the organization’s history and further solidified its reputation for excellence in acquisition and logistics training.

ALMC Mission
Enhance the readiness and sustainability of U.S. forces in joint, interagency, and multinational operations through training, education, consulting, and research.

In 1992, the Combined Logistics Officers Advanced Course was established at ALMC to prepare captains in the aviation, medical, ordnance, quartermaster, and transportation branches to become branch company commanders and staff officers in multifunctional battalions. The course was renamed the Combined Logistics Captains Career Course in 1999.

ALMC began in a one-story frame building. Today, it occupies a 179,000-square foot academic and research facility that includes classrooms with state-of-the-art automation, a metals laboratory, a 40,000-volume academic library, and television studios. (Classroom photos shown on page 50.)

In September 2002, the Council on Occupational Education (COE) awarded ALMC formal accreditation status as a non-degree-granting occupational education institution. This accreditation is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Today, ALMC’s two schools—the School of Systems and Acquisition Management and the School of Logistics Science—present courses in logistics leader development, operations research, acquisition management, integrated logistics support planning, materiel management, and disposal operations management. They also offer courses in installation logistics management, environmental management, hazardous materials handling, financial management, decision risk analysis, and quantitative analytical techniques.

ALMC operates the Army Logistics Library and publishes the Army Logistician professional bulletin, which provide information resources for military logisticians throughout the world.

From the original class of 34 students, ALMC has grown into a major Army school that offered courses to approximately 31,000 students in 2003. ALOG

ALMC’s first civilian graduation speaker, Gerald R. Ford, then a congressman from Michigan and later President of the United States, told graduates of the June 1955 class, “The Army Supply Management Course is an example of the outstanding job the Army has done in improving the Army school system. We look for outstanding accomplishments from you members, and we know the record will speak for itself.”