HISTORY
While Army Counterintelligence Command uncased its colors in July 2022 as a brand new command, the unit traces its roots back to the origins of the 902d Military Intelligence Group over 100 years ago.
During World War I, the Army formed the Corps of Intelligence Police (CIP) to combat espionage, sabotage, and subversion against personnel, units, and installations. CIP agents saw service both overseas and in the United States. In 1942, the CIP became the famed Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) of World War II. American troops were once against fighting on foreign soil and operating in an environment exploited by saboteurs and collaborators. CI units deployed worldwide to protect U.S. and Allied Forces.
One of the CIC units was the 902d CIC Detachment. Activated on November 23, 1944, the 902d CIC Detachment was formed in Hollandia, New Guinea -- General Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Area. It provided security to combat forces on New Guinea, and later, on Luzon in the Philippines. For its service in the Philippines from October 1944 to July 1945, the detachment received the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.
The 902d CIC Detachment was reactivated in January 1952 with the mission of handling sensitive personnel assignments from the CIC School at Fort Holabird, Maryland. Moreover, the unit was responsible for counterintelligence operations being handled directly by the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI), G2 at the Pentagon. For the first time, all CI functions in direct support of Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA) were consolidated into a single organization. In December 1957, the unit was redesignated as the 902d Counter Intelligence Corps Group. Throughout the rest of that decade, the 902d provided technical, linguist, and security support to Army elements worldwide. The 902d represented the apex of Army counterintelligence.
On October 15, 1966, the unit received the designation of the 902d Military Intelligence (MI) Group. On December 31, 1969, the 902d MI Group was assigned to the U.S. Army Intelligence Command, but remained under the operational control of the Army’s ACSI.
Assigned to the newly established U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command in 1977, the 902d was charged with bring CI and communications security functions together in a unified mission. By 1996, the 902d had evolved into the Army’s principal shield against the threat posed by foreign intelligence services. The 902d protected forces in the United States before they deployed through multidiscipline CI activities such as operation security surveys prior to movement from home stations, communications security analysis, polygraphs of linguists, and route vulnerability assessments from home station to point of embarkation.
In 2019, the Secretary of the Army directed that Army counterintelligence undergo a transformation in order to align its force structure, enable agents to respond more rapidly to threats from adversaries, and to divest operational authorities to the lowest level of command where they could be used most effectively. As a result, MDMP began to build the foundations of what would level become Army Counterintelligence Command.
In December 2021, the unit officially activated, creating the Counterintelligence Command and establishing ACIC as the Army’s single military department counterintelligence office. In July 2022, the unit cased the legacy 902d Military Intelligence Group Colors, uncased the Army Counterintelligence Command colors, and welcomed its first Commanding General, Brigadier General Cox.
Today, ACIC conducts CI activities to support Army commanders, protect and maintain the DOD and Army’s strategic advantage, and detect, identify, neutralize, and exploit foreign intelligence services and international terrorist threats.
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