Canadian Army Command and Staff College (CACSC)

Mission

Deliver high quality, relevant and progressive education and training in order to prepare officers and NCM for employment in command and staff positions at the tactical level.

Provide synthetic environment capabilities in support of Land operations training, concept development and experimentation.

Provide oversight of CAF PD and stewardship and management of Army PD.

Course Information

CACSC is charged with developing in army officers the ability to perform command and staff functions in war.

The following courses are offered at CACSC :

• Army Operations Course (AOC) – Full-Time and Part-Time; 
• Military Training and Cooperation Program (MTCP) - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO);
• Unit Command Team Course (UCTC); 
• Primary Reserve Unit Command Team Course (P Res UCTC); 
• Tactical Information Management Team Course (TIMTC);
• Joint Targeting Course (JTC); 
• Collateral Damage Estimation Course (CDEC); 
• Joint Targeting Staff Officer (JTSO) Course; 
• Joint Weaponeering Course (JWC); 
• Precision Strike Suite – Special Operations Forces (PSS – SOF) Course; and 
• Target Engagement Authority (TEA) Course.

For Canadian students, the Joining Instructions, Personal History Form, Student Handbook, and course dates, are available on the CACSC ACIMS SharePoint site. For additional information, please forward an email to +CACSC Ops@CACSC@Kingston (CACSC.Ops@forces.gc.ca) with the following subject title: COURSE AND SERIAL, RANK NAME - REQUEST FOR…

For Foreign students, the Joining Instructions will be sent to the students once identified via our Canadian Defense Attaché team. As per the Joining Instructions, Para 3, students must also fill out the Student Information Sheet. For a copy, please contact the Course Administrator via email CACSC.Ops@forces.gc.ca.

Visiting Lecturer's Guide

Please refer to the Visiting Lecturer's Guide Page

Crest

In 1868 the owl resting on crossed swords and surmounted by a crown, together with the motto "Tam Marte Quam Minerva' was adopted as the crest of the British Army Staff College, Camberley. The design was due to the joint efforts of Captain (later Major-General) JN Crealock, a student at the College, and Brevet Major (afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel) AS Jones, VC, the Adjutant at the time. Captain Crealock was a gifted amateur artist, and seeing that the College did not possess a crest he offered to design one. Minerva is the goddess of war and of wisdom in roman Mythology, and the owl was her favourite bird.

There are various translations of the motto, but one of the best seems to be that given by Field-Marshal Earl Wavell when making the Haldane Memorial lecture in January, 1948. The Field-Marshal translated the motto as: "By fighting as much as by writing" or "By kill as much as by skill", which he said was a reminder that operation orders do not win battles without the valour and endurance of the soldiers who carry them out. In 1956, the senior Classics master at Wellington College, Berkshire, when asked for his opinion, gave it that the Latin used in the motto is a correct Latin phrase, and since the construction placed a trifle more stress on Mars than on Minerva a free translation he suggested might be "With understanding and with force of arms" or "Practical as well as theoretical soldiering here". This seems to fit in well with Lord Wavell's translation quoted above.

In 1946, a Canadian adaptation of the Staff College Camberley Crest was drawn up. This adaptation was basically similar except a band was carried across the base with the word CANADA on it. On 23 April 1946, the Staff College Camberley notified their complete agreement with the Canadian adaptation and a few weeks later approval of the Military Members of the Army Council was granted. On 30 May 1946, the War Office was consulted and stated it had no objection to the use of the Canadian adaptation of the Staff College Camberly Crest by the Canadian Army Staff College, and this latter date is construed as the date that it became the official crest of the Canadian Army Staff College. In February 1977, the present form of the College crest was officially authorized as the crest of the Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College. It was felt that the Snowy Owl was more emblematic of a Canadian Staff College and accordingly the Canadian Snowy Owl replaced the Horned Owl.

History of Fort Frontenac

For information on the history of Fort Frontenac, please consult:

• A History of Fort Frontenac (PDF 7.28 MB)