U.S. Army Institute for Religious Leadership

five-week course consisted of military law, international law, Army regulations, service customs, hygiene, first aid and horsemanship. Chaplain (MAJ) Aldred A. Pruden was appointed as the school’s first commandant. To supplement the activities of the school in World War I, a subsidiary Chaplain School was created in France during the early summer of 1918, and located near the headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force at Chaumont. It closed in 1919. The school continued in the United States at various locations until 1928. At this time, although never formally deactivated, the school ceased to train resident students and concentrated on correspondence courses. After the outbreak of World War II, the War Department reactivated the school in 1942. Since that time, thousands of Chaplains, Chaplain Candidates and Religious Affairs Specialists have received instruction in a variety of courses designed to best enable them to perform their duties in an Army environment. Located at Fort Jackson, South Carolina since 1995, the U.S. Institute for Religious Leadership is the home of the Chaplain Corps Regiment, formally activated on 29 July 1986. February 2022, the Chaplain School transitioned to the U.S. Army Institute for Religious Leadership. This organization, comprised of the Religious Leadership Academy (RLA), the Non-Commissioned Officer Academy (NCOA), the Graduate School, and the Religious Support Operations Center (RSOC), was designed to enhance the investments we make in developing strategic leaders for our Corps, and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of RS delivery.