Mission

Provide the Army with agile, adaptive senior enlisted leaders of character, competence and commitment to be effective leaders. These leaders, grounded in Army and Joint doctrine, exploit opportunities by leveraging and applying Army resources.

Vision

The SGM-A is the premier professional military education (PME) institution focused on providing the Army with agile and adaptive senior enlisted leader.

Description

The Army’s culminating enlisted Professional Military Education (PME) institution is the Sergeants Major Academy . This course provides tools to develop critical reasoning, creative thinking and decision-making skills. Soldiers are provided an education that teaches them to enhance their character, self-expression, and strengthen teamwork abilities. The course assists in the development of logical, practical and original reasoning abilities necessary for problem solving. Students analyze problems based on available information, arrive at logical solutions and decisions with reasonable speed, communicate reasoning and decisions orally and in writing, and supervise to ensure proper execution. Intellectual honesty, integrity, and professional values and standards are highly stressed. The SGM Academy contains a total of 1,484.7 instructional hours, and is also offered as a nonresident course which culminates with two weeks of resident instruction at the academy.

Purpose

The Sergeants Major Academy prepares master sergeants and sergeants major to elevate from a tactical level of thinking to an operational and strategic perspective thus preparing them for leadership positions in organizations executing unified land operations. What Soldiers learn prepares them for leadership positions in joint, interagency, intergovernmental, multinational organizations (JIIM) as well as battalion, brigade, and division through echelons-above-corps (EAC) staff sergeants major command levels



 


 

The Department of Professional Studies (DPS)

 


The department produces thoughtful and a well-informed Sergeant Major. It cultivates individual freedom through reflection and self-awareness. It leads individuals to think critically and make good decisions in the future. It creates an understanding of the broader context of military issues and the role of the Sergeant Major in the Armed Forces. It leads to more creative, innovative and forward thinking as a result, of fresh perspectives that the topics present.

The Department of Joint Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational Operations (DJIIMO)


The DJIIMO is an integral part of the SMC foundation for Joint Professional Military Education (JPME). This theme of instruction addresses significant portions and objectives of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, IAW CJCSI 1805.01B, 15 May 2015. The DJIIMO emphasizes using critical thinking, analysis, and problem solving to explore the application of Joint doctrine. By applying these principles to a complex problem set, students will develop a perspective of leadership at the operational and strategic level. They will continue to explore these concepts and applications in the Department of Army Operations (DAO).

Department of Army Operations (DAO)

 


The DAO is an integral part of the Sergeants Major Course. The DAO uses critical thinking, analysis, and problem solving to explore the application of Army operations. By applying these principles to a complex problem set you will continue to develop your perspective of leadership. You will explore Army operations primarily at the tactical and operational levels.

The Department of Command Leadership (DCL)


Instruction in the DCL focuses on the attributes and competencies required of an operational and strategic level leader in today’s Armed Forces. When students become a Sergeant Major their span of control will decrease, however their sphere of influence will increase significantly. The DCL designed the curriculum to enhance their critical and creative thinking skills so they can effectively maximize that influence and extend it beyond their chain of command to support the mission and goals of their organization.

The Department of Force Management (DFM)


The objective of DFM is to introduce the students on the “how to” and “why” in determining force requirements and alternative means of resourcing Soldier training requirements, in order to accomplish Army functions and missions as related to their unit and Army Command (ACOM)-level management positions within Army organizations. DFM provides a systemic overview of How the Army Runs, to include the established force management processes; the determination of force requirements through to the resourcing of those requirements and the assessment of their utilization in order to accomplish Army functions and missions. Additionally, the DFM student will gain an understanding of the processes and systems to sustain and generate the force. Lastly, the DFM student will receive an overview in contract support operations. At the completion of the DFM semester, a successful student will be able to define what role the Sergeant Major may have in the force management process.

Department of Distance Education (DDE)


Provides senior noncommissioned officers with the highest quality educational experience by engaging distance learning (DL) strategies to develop agile and adaptive leaders who can meet the challenges of unified land operations in an era of persistent conflict IAW current doctrine. The DDE is responsible for executing the SMC for an average of 1,300 students in a nonresident status annually via 6 simultaneous iterations of varied course formats tailored to the target audience. The objective of the department is to deliver learning outcomes equivalent to the traditional classroom environment.