Berlin, Germany
The original school for American Children in Berlin.
DoDEA Celebrates 75 Years of Excellence
DoDEA's 75th Anniversary Periods of Focus
The 75th anniversary will be a year-long commemoration. We’ll start our celebration looking at the opening of our first schools in post-World War II in Germany, Japan, and Austria. We will conclude the commemoration with graduations at the end of the school year in June 2022.
In between, we will acknowledge important milestones and all the entities that comprise DoDEA today. We'll highlight our history, significant achievements, and people. Seventy-five years is a wide span of time to cover. We have created 3 periods of focus in our systemic campaign.
Early Years
1946-1975
October – December 2021
Consolidation
1975-1994
January – March 2022
21st Century
1994-2021
April – June 2022
Coming Soon
“From our early beginnings, DoD schools have maintained an ongoing focus on continuous improvement, and a promise and commitment to ensure 'excellence in education for every student, every day, everywhere.'” - Tom Brady, Director
During the 2021-2022 school year, we will celebrate 75 years as a school system. We’ll look back with gratitude on the remarkable men and women who made it their life’s work to care for, educate, and empower more than 15 million military-connected children who have passed through our doors. The DoDEA experience is characterized by an enduring commitment to excellence in every facet of teaching and learning – to provide military-connected children with the education they need and deserve.
Join us this school year as we celebrate DoDEA’s 75th anniversary…Discovering the past, understanding the present, and creating a better future.
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Partners in Preserving Our History
American Overseas Schools Historical Society
The American Overseas Schools Historical Society is a non-profit organization that collects, records, preserves, and exhibits historical memorabilia of the American Overseas SchoolsDoDDS Reunion XXXIV
My DoDDS Reunion is a group of teachers, administrators, and support staff who taught in American schools all over the world. Their umbrella encompasses those who have retired from or are still working in the DODEA system, formerly known as DoDDS.Overseas Brats
Overseas Brats is an organization for those associated with American Overseas schools designed to serve the needs of thousands of "Overseas Brats.The Museum of the American Military Family
Incorporated as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation, the Museum of the American Military Family is the only one of its kind in the United States. It is the only Museum dedicated to celebrating the contributions of America’s military families.1946-1975
The early years encompass the first 3 decades of our operations in post-war Europe and the Pacific as well as domestic schools that were managed by installations and commands. It was marked by efforts to develop a consistent approach to the establishment, operation, and resourcing for schools serving military families, overseas and on installations in the USA.
DoDEA Schools' History
In the list of school openings for 1946, the Europe listing is more detailed than the Pacific because of the availability of documents from the Army. Records identified from the Pacific Army operations are limited. Not every school today has been in operation for the 75 year span of our organizational history; however, each school and office has played a pivotal role during their tenure in telling the DoDEA story. Some of our current locations/communities are enduring communities – having had one of the first school operations in 1946 (Yokota, Tokyo, Kubasaki, Guantanamo Bay, West Point, Stuttgart, Garmisch, Ansbach, and Wiesbaden).
History of the Dependents School Service (DSS) Germany
The Dependents School Service was formally established on May 4, 1946.Our First School Year
While a few schools were operating on military bases within the continental United States and its territories, prior to World War II, the school system we know today as the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) formally began with the establishment of dependents schools in October 1946 in the occupied countries of Germany, Austria and Japan.Parent Organizational Names Since 1946
While DoDEA has had many names over the years and still has different names in our guiding legislation (DSS, USDESEA DoDDS, Section 6, DDESS), the school system today has, in fact, been a unified one since 1992 under one organization, DoDEA.
In Their Words
“.…Established that dependent children had to attend dependent schools established by the service designated to provide supportive functions to the installation…”
Download Quote Image
In Their words
In Their Words… is a series of quotations from teachers, administrators, military leaders and our partners that speak to the circumstances, determination and spirit that have better enabled our warriors and DoD civilians, past and present, to make lasting contributions to our nation's defense, and indeed the defense of freedom around the world.
Go to In Their Words Gallery
Mission Champion
Doc’s guiding philosophy was to encourage each school to develop its own personality and for school administrators to “nourish creativity in their teaching staffs.”
Download PosterMission Champions
Mission Champions helps to bring alive the stories of just a few of those champions whose individual actions advanced the team-work and momentum needed to provide quality educational services to the children who attend our schools, and their families, who sacrifice so much to serve our country. Each of these champions represent and preserve a legacy built by thousands of educators and support personnel committed to advancing the DoDEA mission.
Go to Mission Champions Gallery
1975-1994
The Consolidation and Unification years (1975-1994) were empowered by the resourcefulness, dedication, and focused optimism of the men and women who established and operated schools in the aftermath of World War II. As the world has changed dramatically, Service, Command, and school leaders refined the structure and operation of the DoD schools to better meet a growing and dynamic mission. The need for a civilian school system within the DoD became clear leading to a comprehensive pre-kindergarten through 12th grade curriculum that was competitive with that of any school system in the United States.
The 1970s
In 1976, a Joint House-Senate Conference Committee Report informed the three military departments that the Department of Defense was taking over the operation of the military dependents' schools. A newly-established office in the Pentagon - the Office of Overseas Dependents Education - responsible to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs - took oversight of the schools.
In 1978 the Office of Overseas Dependents Education became the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS). The three geographic areas - Europe, Pacific, and Atlantic - were reconfigured into six geographic regions (Atlantic, Germany North, Germany South, Mediterranean, Panama and Pacific) with a regional director and several superintendents. In 1983, Germany North and Germany South were combined into a single Germany region.
1970: War in Vietnam Widens
1972 Martial law declared in the Philippines by President Ferdinand Marcos
1975: Saigon Falls
1977: Rise of the PC
1979: Islamic Republic Born in Iran
- The Iran hostage crisis begins. 4 November
- The Soviet–Afghan War begins. 24 December
The 1980s
Following the Cold War in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the number of DoDDS schools was reduced and combined with the U.S.-based Domestic Dependents Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS) to form the Department of Defense Education Activity in 1992.
1980 Beginning of the Iran–Iraq War
1981 Iran releases the 52 U.S. hostages held in Tehran after 444 days
1983: The Internet is Born
- Invasion of Grenada by the United States. October
- The Beirut barracks bombing results in the deaths of 307 people, hastening the removal of international peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, 23 October
1985: Reagan, Gorbachev Meet
1986: Shuttle Tragedy
- The Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine kills about 100 people, 26 April
1988 End of the Iran–Iraq War, 20 August
1989: The Berlin Wall Falls
- The Cold War ended
- Columbine High School massacre
- Genocide in Rwanda
- End of the Soviet war in Afghanistan
- A military coup attempt begins in the Philippines against the government of Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino, 1–9 December
- The United States invasion of Panama begins, 20 December
The 1990s
In 1992 the DoDDS headquarters in Arlington, VA, became the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). The DoDEA Director assumed responsibility for organizing, managing, and directing the DoDEA headquarters, DoDDS, and DDESS. Today, the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) provides education to approximately 67,000 eligible DoD military and civilian children in 160 schools.
1990 Gulf War begins
- German reunification, 3 October
1991: The Gulf War ends in US withdrawal and a failed uprising, February
- Mount Pinatubo erupts with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of 6 and reduces global temperatures, 12 June
- The Ten-Day War in Slovenia begins the Yugoslav Wars, 27 June–7 July
- The Senate of the Philippines rejects the bilateral treaty with United States which would have extended American use of Subic Bay Naval Base, 13 September
- Dissolution of the Soviet Union and independence of 15 former Soviet republics, 26 December
1992 The Maastricht Treaty creates the European Union
- Cold War Ends
- The Bosnian War begins, 6 April
- After the end of its dictatorship, South Korea is admitted to the UN, 8 August
1993 World Trade Center bombing, 26 February
Witness to History
“No matter who you are, no matter what you do, you'd like to witness history.”
-Richard Sherman, Author
By virtual of their service in locations around the world, DoDEA employees and students have often had a front row seat to historic events around the world. Below a few of the incredible stories that students and their teachers have come back home to tell.
Thrust into a Hotbed of World Political Events
“All of these things are happening, but you just take them in stride. You live it. You experience it. You talk about it. You have a job to do --- you have school to teach or whatever your particular job is. But you're seeing all this history unfold around you.
It's hard to explain… the opportunity to go overseas and just see life from a totally different perspective. Phenomenal."
-Patrick Kilkenny, DoDEA Educator
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Eruption of Mt. Pinatubo Creates a “Whole New World”
“It was the front edge of the big eruption that happened on that Saturday and we watched the cloud go over us, watched the sun disappear in the East because we were high above the bay and that's the last light we saw that day. The next morning we got up and it was a different world. It was all black and white or gray and white and the ash was everywhere. It had stripped off leaves from the trees and it was just like a whoa -- whole new world.”
-DoDEA Science teacher Michael Roylance
Dictator Manuel Noriega, Panama, and a “Bit of a Pickle”
“So, that brings to mind the concept that DOD is family, and it's bigger than a job. The DoDEA family just supports one another, and that family continues. That original group that I worked with in the district office in Panama, we still get together every other year. We've been doing it for 20 years, and I am sure that there are many people in DoDEA that would tell you that same story.”
-Anne Muse, DoDEA Educator
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An Orientation to Life Near the Demilitarized Zone, Korea
“Those of us who have opted to teach abroad have usually arrived exuberantly at our destinations, and our ebullience (after having overcome shipboard lethargy or jet lag) has continued into our new assignments. There was undoubtedly a time, however, in our Korean experience, that our thoughts were sobered."
Evacuation of Personnel from Clark Air Base and Navy Base Subic Bay
The following first-hand account was transcribed and edited from an audio interview conducted by Frank O’Gara with Linda Beaulieu, an ISS and the coordinator of the Teacher of the Year Program at DoDEA HQ.
A big surprise one day
Yeah, April 1, 1991 -- April Fool's Day, we got to school, when we got to the parking lot, we smelled rotten eggs. Somebody said, “there's a dormant volcano that is waking up over in the distance.” I remember at lunch that day in the faculty lounge saying, "Can you imagine the letters? Dear Mom, we're being evacuated because of a volcano!” news.
Berlin - At the Crossroads of the Cold War
“I stared in joyous disbelief at national television coverage in November 1989. Berliners smashed it [Berlin Wall] with sledge hammers, framing hammers, tire irons...anything they could to destroy that worn-out relic of injustice to humanity."
-Diana Green Kempton, AOSHS
DoDEA Directors
DoDEA has a long and proud history of serving military families at locations around the globe. The 1946-47 school year also marked the first time that the federal government and the military realized that a more consistent approach was needed to the establishment, operation, and resources for schools serving military families, overseas and on installations in the USA. Schools were being operated separately by the Army, Navy, and Air Force in countries around the world and the operation and enrolment grew significantly with each passing year.
In 1976, Congress directed that the tri-service geographical management of schools be discontinued, and the total management of schools be vested in the Office of Overseas Dependents Education with a civilian director.
Taking a deeper dive into DoDEA history
A lot has changed during the history of DoDEA. If you are looking to do a deeper dive into our history, we have compiled some research, resources and references for you.
DoDEA Research
DoDEA Research page provides information on the history, history preservation, resources, and more.DoDEA's 75 Year History
DoDEA's beginnings can be traced back to the end of World War II with the establishment of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DODDS).
Principal Resources
In the coming school year, we will celebrate 75 years. We’ll look back with gratitude on the remarkable men and women who made it their life’s work to care, educate, and empower more than 15 million military-connected children who have passed through our doors. The following resources will help you provide ongoing visibility for this celebration in your school community.Disclaimer
The citation of publications, organizations and/or the appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) of non-U.S. Government sites or the information, products, or services contained therein. Although DoDEA may or may not use these sites as additional distribution channels for Department of Defense information, it does not exercise editorial control over all the information that you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this website.