U.S. Army
Military Intelligence Corps
From breaking Enigma and PURPLE in WWII to Nisei linguists translating captured documents across the Pacific to F3EAD targeting cycles dismantling terrorist networks in Iraq, Military Intelligence ensures commanders never fight blind. HUMINT, SIGINT, GEOINT, counterintelligence, all-source analysis — MI knows what the enemy is doing before the enemy does it.
WWII — Breaking Codes, Winning Wars
1941 – 1945
ULTRA
TOP SECRET · ENIGMA
ULTRA
German Enigma Decrypts
MAGIC
Japanese PURPLE
SIS
Signal Intelligence Svc
War
SHORTENED BY YEARS
The Army's Signal Intelligence Service broke the Japanese PURPLE diplomatic cipher before Pearl Harbor. MAGIC intercepts and British ULTRA decrypts of German Enigma traffic gave Allied commanders unprecedented insight into enemy plans. Signals intelligence shortened the war by years — enabling victories at Midway, North Africa, Normandy, and across the Pacific. The SIGINT mission that Army codebreakers pioneered in WWII became the foundation of the National Security Agency, which the Army helped create in 1952.
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NISEI MIS
MILITARY INTEL SERVICE
6,000
Nisei Linguists
MIS
Military Intel Service
Pacific
Every Campaign
Secret
WEAPON · MacARTHUR
While their families were held in internment camps, 6,000 Japanese-American Nisei linguists served in the Military Intelligence Service — translating captured documents, interrogating prisoners, and intercepting radio communications across the Pacific. General Willoughby called them MacArthur's "secret weapon." Nisei MIS soldiers shortened the Pacific war and saved countless American lives, all while their own government questioned their loyalty. Their service was classified for decades. It remains one of the most extraordinary stories of patriotism under injustice in American military history.
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Cold War — The Intelligence Machine
1945 – 1991
COLD WAR
ASA · INSCOM
ASA
Army Security Agency
Berlin
Tunnel · Op. Gold
INSCOM
1977 · Commands MI
Soviet
ORDER OF BATTLE
The Army Security Agency ran SIGINT operations along the Iron Curtain — listening posts from Berlin to Turkey intercepting Soviet military communications. The Berlin Tunnel (Operation Gold) tapped Soviet landlines in East Berlin. MI interrogators debriefed defectors. Counterintelligence agents hunted Soviet moles. INSCOM was established in 1977 to consolidate the Army's intelligence and security commands. For forty-five years, MI built the Soviet order of battle picture that NATO's defense plans were built on.
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VIETNAM
PHOENIX · SIGINT · IPW
Phoenix
Program · Controversial
SIGINT
Radio Intercept Units
IPW
Interrogation · POW
CI
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE
In Vietnam, MI soldiers ran the controversial Phoenix Program — a joint CIA-military intelligence effort to identify and neutralize Viet Cong infrastructure. SIGINT teams intercepted NVA radio communications at every echelon. Interrogators processed prisoners. Counterintelligence agents worked to penetrate the enemy's intelligence networks. Vietnam exposed both the power and the limits of intelligence in a counterinsurgency — the ability to find the enemy didn't always translate into the ability to defeat them.
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GWOT & Modern MI
2001 – Present
F3EAD
TARGETING CYCLE
F3EAD
Targeting Cycle
HUMINT
Source Operations
SIGINT
Cell Phone · Geolocation
SOF-MI
FUSION · NIGHTLY RAIDS
Iraq and Afghanistan transformed Military Intelligence into the Army's most in-demand branch. The F3EAD targeting cycle — Find, Fix, Finish, Exploit, Analyze, Disseminate — fused HUMINT, SIGINT, and GEOINT in real time to drive nightly raids against terrorist networks. MI analysts sat in every TOC. HUMINT collectors ran sources on every FOB. SIGINT soldiers geolocated cell phones. The fusion of intelligence and operations — driven by MI Corps professionals — dismantled AQI and Taliban networks at a pace that would have been impossible in any previous war.
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FT HUACHUCA
SIERRA VISTA, AZ
Huachuca
Fort Huachuca, AZ
USAICoE
Intel Center of Excellence
35-Series
All MI MOS Trained
UAS
DRONE OPERATORS · MI
Fort Huachuca, Arizona — in the mountains where the Army once chased Geronimo — is the home of the Military Intelligence Corps and the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence. Every MI soldier, from 35F analysts to 35M HUMINT collectors to 35G imagery analysts, trains at Huachuca. The post also trains the Army's UAS operators, because drone reconnaissance is an MI mission. In the Arizona desert, the Army builds the intelligence professionals who will know the enemy before the enemy knows itself.
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62
Years as Branch
SIGINT
Helped Create NSA
35-Series
MI Specialties
Always
Out Front