U.S. Army

Branch of the U.S. military with primary responsibility for land combat. It is the only one of the nation's armed forces able to conduct large-scale land warfare and to seize and occupy territory. These assets make the army one of the principal instruments of U.S. military and national-security policy.

Organization

The U.S. Army consists of three branches: the active-duty army, the Army Reserve, and the Army National Guard. Each branch includes both military and civilian personnel. The army is a part of the Department of the Army, which is itself a division of the Department of Defense. The secretary of defense is the civilian officer with direct authority over the U.S. Army.

The active-duty army consists of some 512,000 troops deployed in bases throughout the world. As a result of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, some 115,000 of those troops are currently stationed in the Persian Gulf region. Most of those are serving in Iraq, although there are significant numbers of soldiers in Kuwait and smaller numbers in other Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia. The army also stations about 70,000 soldiers in Germany and some 40,000 each in South Korea and Japan.

The Army National Guard and Army Reserve were developed as auxiliary organizations to support the active-duty army. They serve as a pool of trained reinforcements for the army and a ready force to handle emergency tasks, such as providing disaster relief. There are currently about 350,000 troops in the Army National Guard and 200,000 in the Army Reserve. Both the Army National Guard and Army Reserve have been called upon to shoulder a large part of the burden in Iraq following the 2003 war. As of March 2004, approximately 37,000 Army National Guard troops and 17,000 army reservists were serving in the Gulf.

History

The army has not always held the prominent place in U.S. affairs that it does today. Throughout most of U.S. history, the army has been a small force that was expanded only during times of war. It was not until after World War II that the United States adopted the policy of maintaining a large standing army.

Revolutionary War to Civil War

The U.S. Army had humble beginnings in the American Revolutionary War. The main American force was the volunteer Continental Army, most of whose recruits signed up to receive a cash bonus and a promise of land after the war. The soldiers were inexperienced and ill-equipped and had little or no training for battle. The Continental Army was joined by state and local militia, who were often better equipped and more experienced than the regular army.

The Continental Army lost most of the battles it fought against British regular troops early in the war. Late in 1776, General George Washington adopted a new strategy of avoiding large confrontations in favor of a guerilla war using hit-and-run tactics. These tactics proved successful in frustrating the British army and in convincing France to enter the war against Britain in 1780. The Continental Army's defeat of British forces at Yorktown four years later ensured American independence.

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