US ARMY CENTERS & SCHOOLS

ORGANIZATIONAL FLAGS  •  COLD WAR ERA

Images Added August 2105 Infantry School OCS Brigade & Battalion

During the Cold War era, US Army doctrine, organization and training were the responsibility of Centers and Schools. The former concerned themselves with doctrine, unit tables of organization and training standards while the latter carried out training. Because of the close relationship between these two missions Centers and Schools were co-located, e.g. the Armor Center and the Armor School at Fort Knox. For the larger branches the Schools were organized with brigades, battalions and companies that provided all types of branch-specific training such as officer basic and advanced courses, initial Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) training for enlisted personnel, NCO courses, etc. Smaller branch schools were organized with training companies only. The Reserve Officer Training Corps program had its own infrastructure. Personnel of reserve components of the Army (Army National Guard and Army Reserve) were mostly trained by the active component schools but they also maintained school systems of their own.  Cold War-era Centers and Schools of the US Army were authorized distinctive organizational flags of the following designs. Flags of most Centers that were branch-oriented had a field in the primary branch color and fringe in the secondary branch color. The branch insignia, in either the secondary branch color or in proper colors, was centered on the flag. For flags of branch-oriented Schools, the organization's device (coat of arms) replaced the branch insignia. Brigades of schools had flags with a field in the primary branch color and fringe in the secondary branch color, with a canton of the colors and design of the organization's device. For the Infantry branch, this scheme was modified: The Infantry Center's flag was national flag blue with yellow fringe and bore the Infantry branch insignia in white. The Infantry School's flag had a light blue field. Light blue and white are the Infantry branch colors, but national flag blue with yellow fringe is traditional for Infantry organizational colors. Brigades and battalions of the Infantry School had a national flag blue field and white fringe with a canton of the School's device. Schools not oriented to branch had flags of a design specified by the Army Institute of Heraldry. Generally they displayed the organization's device or shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI). Officer Candidate School brigades and battalions of service schools had organizational flags of the standard pattern for the school with the OCS monogram added. The insignia on the organizational flag of First Region US Army Reserve Officer Training Corps Cadet Command, is the ROTC SSI. Headquarters, ROTC Cadet Command, had a similar flag, without the scroll above the SSI. The device on the organizational flag of the 4160th US Army Reserve Forces School is the is the Lexington Minuteman, the insignia of the US Army Reserve. These flags were always carried or displayed with a National Color of the same material and dimensions, as shown for the Army War College. In the 1980s school brigades and battalions began to be reflagged, assuming the identity of previously inactivated units. For example, battalions of the Field Artillery School were reflagged as field artillery battalions. This change was instituted to preserve in the Army force structure units with storied histories and distinguished combat records. Thus many of the flags depicted below are no longer in use. See here for guidons of companies and batteries of Centers and Schools.