The mission of the Joint History and Research Office (JHRO) is "to create the record of activities of the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Staff and to capture and document all aspects of joint operations conducted by the Armed Forces of the United States."
The JHRO provides historical support to the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to the Joint Staff. Central to this mission is the production of historical studies of the activities of the Chairman and Vice Chairman, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Joint Staff. Historians have served on the Joint Staff since 1943.
The JHRO publishes unclassified and classified works. These include volumes in the Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy series and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam series; an illustrated book on the chairmanship; organizational and administrative histories; histories of joint operations; and studies written by historians affiliated with the combatant commands. A number of these publications are intended specifically for the use of service school faculty and students studying joint operations.
The Combined Chiefs of Staff meet in the Public Health Building in Washington, D.C. circa 1943.
Clockwise from left: Commander Richard D. Coleridge, Royal Navy; Admiral Wilfrid R. Patterson, Royal Navy; Field Marshal Sir John Dill, British Army; Brigadier V. Dykes, British Army; Lieutenant General Gordon MacReady, British Army; Air Marshal Douglas Evill, Royal Air Force; Colonel T. H. Hammond, U.S. Army; General J. T. McNarney, U.S. Army; General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army; Brigadier General John R. Deane, U.S. Army; Admiral William D. Leahy, U.S. Navy; Admiral Ernest J. King, U.S. Navy; Admiral Frederick J. Horne, U.S. Navy.