FORT BENNING, Ga., (July 22, 2015) -- Ten flags posted in the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation's Auditorium July 15 signified the beginning of the Command and General Staff Officer Course, class of 2015-2016.
A student from each of the countries represented in the class marched their national flag to the stage, posted and saluted it in what has become a tradition in WHINSEC's longest and most prestigious course.
There are 58 students in the course from Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and the United States.
The 33 U.S. students come from all four military branches, including the Guard and Reserve.
The international contingent includes military and law enforcement leaders.
Costa Rican Col. Walter Navarro welcomed the class to Fort Benning and to the Institute.
Navarro is a Partner-Nation Instructor who has a long history with WHINSEC and the School of the Americas, having been a student and an instructor (including two stints as the assistant commandant, first with the school, then WHINSEC), and is now part of the Staff and Faculty Development Division, preparing instructors to teach.
The CGSOC is the Army's middle-management course, taught in its entirety in Spanish at WHINSEC.
The WHINSEC course mirrors the course taught at the Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The year of study is designed to educate intermediate-level Army, sister-service and partner-nation officers to be prepared to operate in full-spectrum Army, joint, interagency, and multinational environments as field-grade commanders and staff officers.
U.S. military students attending the course receive MEL-4 and Joint Military Professional Education Phase 1 designation upon completion.
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