“To each and everyone of you today, all 65 of you, I want to say how honored we have been to have you this past year … and to thank you for your attendance, not only at Fort Leavenworth, but more importantly the U.S. military, by your personal interaction, your insights, your views, and the discussions you’ve had with the students this past year,” Caldwell said.

International graduates of CGSC had long sought some distinctive emblem that would identify the wearer as a resident graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff Officer Course. In the early fall of 1964 the commandant, MG Harry J. Lemley, Jr., on his return from a trip to South America where he had met a number of international graduates, caused the present insignia to be designed and produced.

The Badge is a silver device, two and one-eighth inches in diameter, in the center of which is the Leavenworth Lamp. In a circle surrounding the lamp are the words USA COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF COLLEGE, and extending from this central insignia are alternately 12 bright and 12 darker sunflower leaf-shaped curves signifying the 12 months of day and night study that the average International Military Student spends in earning a diploma from the College.

The Leavenworth Lamp is used as the central theme because of its significance to the CGSC graduate: the traditional lamp of learning symbolizing the knowledge gained through study, discussion and reflection – from which emerges a mailed fist representing the military nature of this knowledge. Clenched in the fist are a rifle and a sword, in recognition of the origin of the College as the School for Application of Infantry and Cavalry, and a guided missile symbolizing the future. The whole of the symbolism represents the idea that from the College emerge leaders who, with their knowledge and control of the past, present, and future weapons of war, protect our liberty.

International military student participation in cooperative military studies in the United States originated at Fort Leavenworth with the arrival of Swiss lieutenant Henri Le Comte in 1894. Since then, international military students have become an integral part of the “Fort Leavenworth experience.” More than 7,000 international officers have studied alongside their U.S. Army, sister service, and interagency counterparts. These military officers contribute to a rich professional and cultural exchange environment unmatched anywhere in the world.