Happy 108th Birthday to ACI

On 13 August 1917, the first standing counterintelligence (CI) service within the U.S. Army was formed under the newly created Military Intelligence (MI) Division, commanded by Colonel Ralph Van Deman. This new "permanent" Army CI (ACI) service was called the "Corps of Intelligence Police" (CIP), and it was initiated when the American Expeditionary Forces G-2, Major Dennis Nolan, asked the Army Chief of Staff for "50 men" with police experience to assist British and French counter-espionage efforts at French ports and on the front lines. CIP agents quickly reached legendary status during World War I investigating and neutralizing hundreds of known and suspected enemy agents. They provided security at ports, ran sensitive counter-espionage operations, worked undercover as general workers to catch spies and saboteurs, and even provided security/bodyguard duties for General Pershing and other VIPs. However, because the CIP was so secretive in everything they did, their hard work and successes often went unrecognized.

Today the ACISAA recognizes those first ACI Special Agents in the CIP and celebrates the oldest standing investigative service in the U.S. Army. Unlike some other military investigative agencies/commands (and even some non-military agencies) who trace their lineage back to elements that are not directly tied to their current organizations, ACI has a true, unbroken lineage from what we call our birthdate. While we too can go back to the Revolutionary War with John Jay or the Culper Ring, and even Allan Pinkerton and his detectives working in the Bureau of Military Information during the Civil War to catch Confederate spies, we are more directly tied to an ever evolving permanent ACI organization originating from the CIP in WWI, to when they expanded and rebranded becoming the CI Corps (CIC) in WWII, and continuing on all the way to ACI Command (ACIC) today.

That is why we recognize August 13, 1917 as ACI's official birthday and we honor those first CIP agents whose efforts resulted in ACI becoming a permanent element always protecting the U.S. Army and its National Security interests.

Happy Birthday ACI, you are the Army's National Security Protectors, keep up the good fight.