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124-467: As early as mid-1943, the United States Army had recognized that, once the war was over, bringing the troops home would be a priority. More than 16 million Americans were in uniform, and more than eight million of them were scattered across all theaters of war, worldwide. Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall established committees to address the logistical problem. Eventually organization of

248-598: A status quo antebellum. Two weeks after a treaty was signed (but not ratified), Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans and siege of Fort St. Philip with an army dominated by militia and volunteers, and became a national hero. U.S. troops and sailors captured HMS Cyane , Levant and Penguin in the final engagements of the war. Per the treaty, both sides (the United States and Great Britain) returned to

372-524: A courier service or an adjunct of ferrying; it was well on the way to becoming a major instrument of logistical support to combat operations on the ground and in the air. The civil airlines, in addition to having the available flying personnel (most of whom had learned to fly in the Air Corps) and physical equipment, had another equally valuable though less tangible asset. They had the wealth of practical knowledge in conducting scheduled air transport operations,

496-634: A few months. The war remains the deadliest conflict in U.S. history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 men on both sides. Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6.4% in the North and 18% in the South . Following the Civil War, the U.S. Army had the mission of containing western tribes of Native Americans on the Indian reservations . They set up many forts, and engaged in

620-530: A functional area. However, officers continue to wear the branch insignia of their former branch in most cases, as functional areas do not generally have discrete insignia. Some branches, such as Special Forces , operate similarly to functional areas in that individuals may not join their ranks until having served in another Army branch. Careers in the Army can extend into cross-functional areas for officers, warrant officers, enlisted, and civilian personnel. Before 1933,

744-482: A million wounded. This was not, however, a one-way stream. Former Axis POWs from Europe and Japan had to be repatriated, and occupation forces had to be dropped in Germany, China, Korea and Japan. 450,000 German prisoners of war, in addition to 53,000 Italian ex-POWs were returned to Europe. Between May and September 1945, 1,417,850 were repatriated. Between October 1945 to April 1946, another 3,323,395 were repatriated. By

868-690: A month – known as battle assemblies or unit training assemblies (UTAs) – and conduct two to three weeks of annual training each year. Both the Regular Army and the Army Reserve are organized under Title 10 of the United States Code , while the National Guard is organized under Title 32 . While the Army National Guard is organized, trained, and equipped as a component of the U.S. Army, when it

992-575: A network of long-range transport routes, supporting the daily movement of hundreds of tons of supplies and thousands of passengers, would spread across the world and that daily flights to such remote areas as the Aleutians, Australia, the Philippines, India, and China would become commonplace. Indeed, a limited view of the role of long-range air transportation in World War II persisted for some months after

1116-487: A new Army Command (ACOM) in 2018. The Army Futures Command (AFC), is a peer of FORSCOM, TRADOC, and AMC, the other ACOMs. AFC's mission is modernization reform: to design hardware, as well as to work within the acquisition process which defines materiel for AMC. TRADOC's mission is to define the architecture and organization of the Army, and to train and supply soldiers to FORSCOM. AFC's cross-functional teams (CFTs) are Futures Command's vehicle for sustainable reform of

1240-472: A predominantly combat support role. The army converted to an all-volunteer force with greater emphasis on training to specific performance standards driven by the reforms of General William E. DePuy , the first commander of United States Army Training and Doctrine Command . Following the Camp David Accords that was signed by Egypt, Israel that was brokered by president Jimmy Carter in 1978, as part of

1364-463: A private British company, set up by the British Government for that purpose. By ferrying these bombers under their own power, vital shipping space was saved and factory-to-combat delivery time was cut from approximately three months to less than ten days. However, the British Government had limited funds, and was rapidly running out of resources for the purchase of war materiel of all types from

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1488-613: A role in the invasions of Grenada in 1983 ( Operation Urgent Fury ) and Panama in 1989 ( Operation Just Cause ). By 1989 Germany was nearing reunification and the Cold War was coming to a close. Army leadership reacted by starting to plan for a reduction in strength. By November 1989 Pentagon briefers were laying out plans to reduce army end strength by 23%, from 750,000 to 580,000. A number of incentives such as early retirement were used. In 1990, Iraq invaded its smaller neighbor, Kuwait , and U.S. land forces quickly deployed to assure

1612-563: A squadron of destroyers filled with homeward-bound servicemen. Stopping at Okinawa , they embarked thousands more Tenth United States Army troops. The Navy hastily converted many of its warships into temporary transports, including aircraft carriers, where three-to five-tiered bunks were installed on the hangar decks to provide accommodation for several thousand men in relative comfort. The Navy fleet of 369 ships included 222 assault transports , 6 battleships, 18 cruisers, 57 aircraft carriers and 12 hospital ships. By October 1945, Magic Carpet

1736-705: A strategy of seizing the coastline, blockading the ports, and taking control of the river systems. By 1863, the Confederacy was being strangled. Its eastern armies fought well, but the western armies were defeated one after another until the Union forces captured New Orleans in 1862 along with the Tennessee River. In the Vicksburg Campaign of 1862–1863, General Ulysses Grant seized the Mississippi River and cut off

1860-587: A transfer point, Ferrying Command then initiated development of airfields in northern Maine , some 300 miles nearer the United Kingdom than the Canadian city, at Presque Isle , Houlton and Millinocket . Although Millinocket was abandoned during construction, the Presque Isle Army Airfield and Houlton Army Airfield were completed and opened for service early in 1942. Once the ferried aircraft reached

1984-560: A worldwide air logistics system, maximum use would have to be made of the planes, men, and facilities of the civil airlines. The Ferrying Command was in no position to expand its own military transport services. The Air Corps and the Air Transport Association of America (ATA), representing the domestic carriers, had developed a mobilization plan between 1936 and 1939 to provide this support through contract services. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8974 on 13 December 1941, which gave

2108-527: A worldwide air transportation system for military personnel. Inactivated on 1 June 1948, Air Transport Command was the precursor to what became the Military Air Transport Service in 1948 and was redesignated Military Airlift Command (MAC) in 1966. It was consolidated with MAC in 1982, providing a continuous history of long range airlift through 1992 when the mission was transferred to today's Air Mobility Command . By no means least among

2232-410: Is credited with persuading Roosevelt not to nationalize the airlines. The ferrying activity continued to increase as more aircraft were turned out by the factories, as new combat units became ready for deployment overseas, and as the need for battle replacements grew more and more emphasis came to be placed on the air transportation function. Air transport had passed beyond the stage of being primarily

2356-521: Is not in federal service it is under the command of individual state and territorial governors. However, the District of Columbia National Guard reports to the U.S. president, not the district's mayor , even when not federalized. Any or all of the National Guard can be federalized by presidential order and against the governor's wishes. The U.S. Army is led by a civilian secretary of the Army , who has

2480-588: Is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services , and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution . The Army is the oldest branch of the U.S. military and the most senior in order of precedence. It has its roots in the Continental Army , which was formed on 14 June 1775 to fight against the British for independence during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). After

2604-670: Is that each brigade will be modular, i.e., all brigades of the same type will be exactly the same and thus any brigade can be commanded by any division. As specified before the 2013 end-strength re-definitions, the three major types of brigade combat teams are: In addition, there are combat support and service support modular brigades. Combat support brigades include aviation (CAB) brigades, which will come in heavy and light varieties, fires (artillery) brigades (now transforms to division artillery) and expeditionary military intelligence brigades . Combat service support brigades include sustainment brigades and come in several varieties and serve

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2728-923: The Army Strategy 2018 articulated an eight-point addendum to the Army Vision for 2028. While the Army Mission remains constant, the Army Strategy builds upon the Army's Brigade Modernization by adding focus to corps and division -level echelons. The Army Futures Command oversees reforms geared toward conventional warfare . The Army's current reorganization plan is due to be completed by 2028. The Army's five core competencies are prompt and sustained land combat, combined arms operations (to include combined arms maneuver and wide–area security, armored and mechanized operations and airborne and air assault operations ), special operations forces , to set and sustain

2852-523: The Battle of 73 Easting were tank battles of historical significance. After Operation Desert Storm, the army did not see major combat operations for the remainder of the 1990s but did participate in a number of peacekeeping activities. In 1990 the Department of Defense issued guidance for "rebalancing" after a review of the Total Force Policy, but in 2004, USAF Air War College scholars concluded

2976-516: The Department of the Army , which is one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense . The U.S. Army is headed by a civilian senior appointed civil servant, the secretary of the Army (SECARMY), and by a chief military officer , the chief of staff of the Army (CSA) who is also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . It is the largest military branch, and in the fiscal year 2022,

3100-659: The European Theater of Operations (ETO) during the wartime build-up, the post VE-Day rush homeward would average 430,000 GIs per month for the next 14 months. In mid-October 1945 the United States Navy donated the newly commissioned carrier USS  Lake Champlain —fitted with bunks for 3,300 troops—to the operation. She was joined in November by the battleship USS  Washington . The European lift now included more than 400 vessels. Some would carry as few as 300 while

3224-681: The Netherlands and the United Kingdom , until the 1990s in anticipation of a possible Soviet attack. During the Cold War, U.S. troops and their allies fought communist forces in Korea and Vietnam . The Korean War began in June 1950, when the Soviets walked out of a UN Security Council meeting, removing their possible veto. Under a United Nations umbrella, hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops fought to prevent

3348-778: The Netherlands East Indies . Fortunately for the Allies, the five remaining major routes were held. During 1942, the South Atlantic route to West Africa and beyond assumed an importance far surpassing that of any of the others. In contrast to the slowness of the North Atlantic, South Pacific and Alaskan routes, the South Atlantic airway immediately came to support a heavy volume of air traffic that, because only four former Pan American Clippers , two TWA Stratoliners , and 11 converted B-24 Liberators were capable of hauling cargo on

3472-652: The Office of the Chief of Air Corps (OCAC) was notified by the War Department that he was authorized for training purposes to have military pilots conduct cross-country flights in aircraft destined for use by the British Government for training purposes. On 12 April 1941 plans were presented to the OCAC for the construction of a landing field on the west coast of Greenland for the staging of aircraft via Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland to

3596-578: The Royal Air Force (RAF) from factories in the western and central United States to transfer points on the Atlantic seaboard required the establishment of routes over which the aircraft could be flown. Support stations were set up at civilian as well as military airports for the aircraft to be refueled and any necessary servicing performed. The aircraft factories, particularly the Boeing factory near Seattle and

3720-613: The guerrilla hit and run tactics of the communist Viet Cong and the People's Army Of Vietnam (NVA) . During the 1960s, the Department of Defense continued to scrutinize the reserve forces and to question the number of divisions and brigades as well as the redundancy of maintaining two reserve components, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve . In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara decided that 15 combat divisions in

3844-649: The AAF instead control and direct such a service, primarily composed of pilots and aircraft contracted from U.S. civilian airlines. The Air Service Command (before October 1941 known as the Air Corps Maintenance Command) had been operating a well-established air transport service within the continental United States for months before the Ferrying Command was established, using the 50th Transport Wing to move technical cargo between air depots and subdepots. In

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3968-565: The Air Force Combat Command (formerly GHQ Air Force ) for thirty- to ninety-day tours of temporary duty. More highly qualified four-engine pilots of the Combat Command, as well as navigators and other crew members, were borrowed to fly the trans-Atlantic transport shuttle. In the summer and fall of 1941, approximately 200 pilots were trained at Barksdale Field , Louisiana , especially for ferrying duty, although they were assigned to

4092-521: The Army (HQDA): See Structure of the United States Army for a detailed treatment of the history , components , administrative and operational structure and the branches and functional areas of the Army. The U.S. Army is made up of three components: the active component, the Regular Army; and two reserve components, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. Both reserve components are primarily composed of part-time soldiers who train once

4216-463: The Army National Guard members were considered state militia until they were mobilized into the U.S. Army, typically at the onset of war. Since the 1933 amendment to the National Defense Act of 1916 , all Army National Guard soldiers have held dual status. They serve as National Guardsmen under the authority of the governor of their state or territory and as reserve members of the U.S. Army under

4340-411: The Army National Guard were unnecessary and cut the number to eight divisions (one mechanized infantry, two armored, and five infantry), but increased the number of brigades from seven to 18 (one airborne, one armored, two mechanized infantry and 14 infantry). The loss of the divisions did not sit well with the states. Their objections included the inadequate maneuver element mix for those that remained and

4464-576: The Axis Powers. During the thirteen months of its existence, Ferrying Command had grown from an original staff of two officers and a civilian secretary to a strength of over 11,000 officers and enlisted men, in addition to its civilian employees and those of the civil air carriers operating under its supervision. As the name implies, ferrying had been its main job, and during the period its pilots ferried 13,595 aircraft to final domestic destinations, while 632 planes were delivered to foreign destinations under

4588-487: The British had to be literally pushed across the US-Canada border in order to protect the neutrality of the United States. These shipments to the British caused a shortage in the United States of multi-engine aircraft in particular. Air Corps units were in need of training in long-range navigation, weather and radio-flying that a coast-to-coast ferrying service would give them in the latest models of aircraft. On 12 May 1941

4712-614: The British were weakest to wear down their forces. Washington led victories against the British at Trenton and Princeton , but lost a series of battles in the New York and New Jersey campaign in 1776 and the Philadelphia campaign in 1777. With a decisive victory at Yorktown and the help of the French, the Continental Army prevailed against the British. After the war, the Continental Army

4836-450: The British, would pick up their aircraft at the production facility and fly them to designated transfer points in the Montreal area where the modifications could be made. From Montreal, a Canadian civilian agency under contract to the British government began ferrying US-built bombers across the North Atlantic from Newfoundland to Prestwick (near Glasgow) (Scotland / UK) under the auspices of

4960-770: The CAA and its regulatory control of the airlines to the Army Air Forces. L. Welch Pogue, chairman of the safety agency for civil aviation, the Civil Aeronautics Board , then wrote to the White House advocating the establishment of a civilian air transportation service reporting directly to the President to operate airline contracts for the military, an idea that had been broached during the development period of ATA-Air Corps mobilization plan. In response, General Arnold proposed that

5084-405: The Canadian province of Upper Canada, British troops who had dubbed the U.S. Army "Regulars, by God!", were able to capture and burn Washington , which was defended by militia, in 1814. The regular army, however, proved they were professional and capable of defeating the British army during the invasions of Plattsburgh and Baltimore , prompting British agreement on the previously rejected terms of

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5208-542: The Combat Command and served, as did the others, on temporary-duty status with the Ferrying Command. During the fall of 1941, Ferrying Command had assumed an additional responsibility for delivery of some AAF's own planes from factory to stations within the United States. After the Pearl Harbor attack , the ferry of aircraft within the United States quickly became a major function of the Command. To ferry aircraft purchased by

5332-675: The Consolidated plant. The manufacturers provided civilian pilots to deliver the aircraft from their facilities to Long Beach, where an Air Corps procurement representative inspected the aircraft and turned them over to Ferrying Command. This facility was designated as Headquarters, Western Division, Air Corps Ferrying Command. Boeing Field , Seattle, was the location of the second concentration center, for planes manufactured by Boeing. Other concentration centers used civilian airfields as they became available, as happened in Detroit and Nashville. From

5456-478: The Ferrying Command eventually expanded far beyond the limits imagined by those responsible for its creation. The second assignment provided specific authority for the establishment of a military air transport service over the North Atlantic between the US and the United Kingdom, a project which had been under consideration for some months. Ferrying Command relied initially on two-engine and single-engine pilots detailed from

5580-480: The Japanese had cut the only sea and air lanes over which available reinforcements, such as they were, could reach General MacArthur. By the end of February 1942, the air connection between India and Australia was also cut due to the advance of Japanese forces into Southeast Asia, although some heavy bombers and other reinforcements from the US were able to get through before the Japanese captured Singapore and overran

5704-545: The National Guard, while all states maintain regulations for state militias . State militias are both "organized", meaning that they are armed forces usually part of the state defense forces, or "unorganized" simply meaning that all able-bodied males may be eligible to be called into military service. The U.S. Army is also divided into several branches and functional areas . Branches include officers, warrant officers, and enlisted Soldiers while functional areas consist of officers who are reclassified from their former branch into

5828-619: The ORC and ERC were combined into the United States Army Reserve . The Army of the United States was re-established for the Korean War and Vietnam War and was demobilized upon the suspension of the draft . Currently, the Army is divided into the Regular Army , the Army Reserve, and the Army National Guard . Some states further maintain state defense forces , as a type of reserve to

5952-565: The P-40s were never delivered. However, it was Britain's Royal Air Force which needed massive reinforcement, especially after the losses it incurred on the continent during the German invasion of the Low Countries and France during May 1940. The idea of developing a regular military service for ferrying aircraft was the result of several factors. Production of aircraft by United States manufacturers

6076-592: The Philippines were also developed. Later, a Mid-Atlantic route was developed via the Azores to link the US with Europe and North Africa . While this route was not opened until late 1943, the US and Britain were at all times prepared to occupy the Azores, had the security and future use of this route been threatened by the Axis Powers. By early 1942, it had become clear that the Philippines could not be held, principally because

6200-458: The Revolutionary War progressed, French aid, resources, and military thinking helped shape the new army. A number of European soldiers came on their own to help, such as Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben , who taught Prussian Army tactics and organizational skills. The Army fought numerous pitched battles, and sometimes used Fabian strategy and hit-and-run tactics in the South in 1780 and 1781; under Major General Nathanael Greene , it hit where

6324-400: The Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself a continuation of the Continental Army, and thus considers its institutional inception to be the origin of that armed force in 1775. The U.S. Army is a uniformed service of the United States and is part of

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6448-406: The Secretary of War authority to nationalize the airlines, but except for several instances early in 1942 to meet specific emergencies, the order was not invoked. ATA president Edgar S. Gorrell , a colonel in the Air Service during World War I and the driving force behind pre-war creation of the mobilization plan, delivered immediate full cooperation of the airlines from the first day of the war and

6572-421: The Southern California plants of Lockheed , Consolidated , Douglas , North American and Vultee required a series of organizations to accept the aircraft from the manufacturer, and provide a ferrying crew to transport the aircraft. In Southern California, the Long Beach Municipal Airport was leased by the War Department as a concentration point for all aircraft, except for B-24s to be ferried directly from

6696-441: The Southwest. Grant took command of Union forces in 1864 and after a series of battles with very heavy casualties, he had General Robert E. Lee under siege in Richmond as General William T. Sherman captured Atlanta and marched through Georgia and the Carolinas . The Confederate capital was abandoned in April 1865 and Lee subsequently surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House. All other Confederate armies surrendered within

6820-446: The US became an active belligerent. Not until the late spring and summer of 1942, when large backlogs of supplies awaiting air shipment to the front began to build up at ports of embarkation and when it became clear that almost unlimited demands would be made in future for the rapid movement of urgently needed materials and personnel, did the idea of air transport as a major instrument of logistics begin to take shape. In order to operate

6944-401: The US. Commanded and organized by Brig. Gen. Robert Olds , the mission of the new command was, first, "to move aircraft by air from factories to such terminals as may be designated by the Chief of the Air Corps," and second, "to maintain such special air ferry services [i.e., air transport services] as may be required to meet specific situations." These were broad powers, and working within them,

7068-437: The United Kingdom. This would make possible the ferrying of medium and light bombers across the North Atlantic Ocean. The British ferrying service was well under way when the Lend-Lease Act became law on 11 March 1941. With the North Atlantic sea lanes vulnerable to German U-boat attacks, Major General Henry H. Arnold established the Air Corps Ferrying Command on 29 May 1941, to deliver lend-lease aircraft overseas from

7192-482: The United States (the "Union" or "the North") formed the Union Army , consisting of a small body of regular army units and a large body of volunteer units raised from every state, north and south, except South Carolina . For the first two years, Confederate forces did well in set battles but lost control of the border states. The Confederates had the advantage of defending a large territory in an area where disease caused twice as many deaths as combat. The Union pursued

7316-405: The United States Army was maintained as a small peacetime force to man permanent forts and perform other non-wartime duties such as engineering and construction works. During times of war, the U.S. Army was augmented by the much larger United States Volunteers which were raised independently by various state governments. States also maintained full-time militias which could also be called into

7440-405: The United States. In the early 1930s, the Air Corps began formally experimenting with the systematic use of air transport for the distribution of aviation supplies. The Materiel Division in 1932 established a provisional 1st Air Transport Group with four transport squadrons, each of them equipped with Bellanca Aircruisers and Douglas DC-2s , intended to serve one of the four major air depots in

7564-402: The United States. In the spring of 1941, the Roosevelt Administration was committed to give all possible help, short of actual combat, to the United Kingdom and the remnants of her allies against Nazi Germany . With the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941 the United States stated its intention to assist the British in its war efforts and was a statement of the desire of Congress and

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7688-403: The West Coast, the ferrying routes (as initially laid down) and their corresponding transatlantic transport method were: At the end of each route was the designated transfer point at which final inspections were accomplished and the aircraft transferred from Air Corps jurisdiction to representatives of the RAF Ferry Command or the British Air Commission. To replace and supplement Montreal as

7812-404: The achievements of the Army Air Forces (AAF) in World War II was its development of a worldwide system of air transport. The development of transport aircraft in the 1920s and 1930s added a new dimension to the art of warfare, and around its varied capacities the AAF built an air transportation system such as had never before been envisaged. That system, and its functions, soon became synonymous with

7936-423: The acquisition process for the future. In order to support the Army's modernization priorities, its FY2020 budget allocated $ 30 billion for the top six modernization priorities over the next five years. The $ 30 billion came from $ 8 billion in cost avoidance and $ 22 billion in terminations. The task of organizing the U.S. Army commenced in 1775. In the first one hundred years of its existence,

8060-492: The administrative competence, and the mastery of techniques that came from long experience. The AAF, on the other hand, had no such expertise among its senior leadership nor experience from its nascent operations. In January 1942, Arnold established the AAF Office of Civil Aviation and recalled the chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Administration , Donald H. Connolly, to military service, appointing him Military Director of Civil Aviation and directing him to use EO 8974 to transfer

8184-491: The agreement, both the United States and Egypt agreed that there would be a joint military training led by both countries that would usually take place every 2 years, that exercise is known as Exercise Bright Star . The 1980s was mostly a decade of reorganization. The Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 created unified combatant commands bringing the army together with the other four military services under unified, geographically organized command structures. The army also played

8308-422: The air transport service in support of both ferrying and combat operations was enlarged and extended, albeit in piecemeal fashion. Later, a Mid-Atlantic route was developed via the Azores to link the US with Europe and North Africa . While this route was not opened until late 1943, the US and Britain were at all times prepared to occupy the Azores, had the security and future use of this route been threatened by

8432-474: The army began acquiring fixed-wing aircraft . In 1910, during the Mexican Revolution , the army was deployed to U.S. towns near the border to ensure the safety of lives and property. In 1916, Pancho Villa , a major rebel leader, attacked Columbus, New Mexico , prompting a U.S. intervention in Mexico until 7 February 1917. They fought the rebels and the Mexican federal troops until 1918. The United States joined World War I as an "Associated Power" in 1917 on

8556-452: The authority of the president, in the Army National Guard of the United States. Since the adoption of the total force policy, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, reserve component soldiers have taken a more active role in U.S. military operations. For example, Reserve and Guard units took part in the Gulf War , peacekeeping in Kosovo , Afghanistan, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq . [REDACTED] Headquarters, United States Department of

8680-498: The battlefields of France. It wasn't until the 1920s that the development of cargo and personnel transport aircraft began with aircraft such as the Boeing Model 40 . From 1926 until 1942, the Air Corps’ logistical responsibilities were vested in the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps Materiel Division, with headquarters at Wright Field, Ohio and with four major depots (at Sacramento , California; San Antonio , Texas; Fairfield , Ohio; and Middletown , Pennsylvania) distributed over

8804-439: The building, as part of the September 11 attacks . In response to the 11 September attacks and as part of the Global War on Terror , U.S. and NATO forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, displacing the Taliban government. The U.S. Army also led the combined U.S. and allied invasion of Iraq in 2003; it served as the primary source for ground forces with its ability to sustain short and long-term deployment operations. In

8928-466: The combatant commanders for use as directed by the secretary of defense. By 2013, the army shifted to six geographical commands that align with the six geographical unified combatant commands (CCMD): The army also transformed its base unit from divisions to brigades . Division lineage will be retained, but the divisional headquarters will be able to command any brigade, not just brigades that carry their divisional lineage. The central part of this plan

9052-599: The distribution of spare parts to Army airbases. The group, redesignated the 10th Transport Group in 1937, also transported supplies from one depot to another. With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, several European governments approached the United States for military equipment. They needed immediate help for the battles they might very soon have to fight on their own soil against invading German armies. The French ordered Douglas DB-7 (A-20) two-engine light bombers; Curtiss P-36 Hawks, and some Curtiss P-40D Warhawks, although

9176-423: The domestic ferrying assignment it was only a step to the Command taking over the responsibility for delivering or supervising the delivery of AAF and lend-lease aircraft to theaters of war scattered across the world. After the US entered World War II, it became clear that the fastest and most economical method of moving combat aircraft from the factory to the front, which might be 10,000 to 15,000 miles away due to

9300-622: The end of FY2017. From 2016 to 2017, the Army retired hundreds of OH-58 Kiowa Warrior observation helicopters, while retaining its Apache gunships. The 2015 expenditure for Army research, development and acquisition changed from $ 32 billion projected in 2012 for FY15 to $ 21 billion for FY15 expected in 2014. By 2017, a task force was formed to address Army modernization, which triggered shifts of units: CCDC , and ARCIC , from within Army Materiel Command (AMC), and Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), respectively, to

9424-555: The end of February, the ETO phase of Magic Carpet was essentially completed. With the surrender of Japan , the Navy also began bringing home sailors and Marines . Vice Admiral Forrest Sherman 's Task Force 11 departed Tokyo Bay early in September 1945 with the battleships USS  New Mexico , USS  Idaho , USS  Mississippi , and USS  North Carolina , and two carriers plus

9548-439: The end to the practice of rotating divisional commands among the states that supported them. Under the proposal, the remaining division commanders were to reside in the state of the division base. However, no reduction in total Army National Guard strength was to take place, which convinced the governors to accept the plan. The states reorganized their forces accordingly between 1 December 1967 and 1 May 1968. The Total Force Policy

9672-459: The first half of 1941 the ASC moved more cargo domestically than all the civilian carriers in the United States. Several months after the war began, demands for materiel forced ASC to use civilian carriers on a contract basis, creating a Contract Air Cargo Division managed by former airline executives, who established routes outside the United States to Alaska, the upper Atlantic, and Central America. Many of

9796-567: The following years, the mission changed from conflict between regular militaries to counterinsurgency , resulting in the deaths of more than 4,000 U.S. service members (as of March 2008) and injuries to thousands more. 23,813 insurgents were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. Until 2009, the army's chief modernization plan, its most ambitious since World War II, was the Future Combat Systems program. In 2009, many systems were canceled, and

9920-569: The forces that landed in French North Africa and took Tunisia and then moved on to Sicily and later fought in Italy . In the June 1944 landings in northern France and in the subsequent liberation of Europe and defeat of Nazi Germany , millions of U.S. Army troops played a central role. In 1947, the number of soldiers in the US Army had decreased from eight million in 1945 to 684,000 soldiers and

10044-420: The full range of military operations and the spectrum of conflict, in support of combatant commanders ". The branch participates in conflicts worldwide and is the major ground-based offensive and defensive force of the United States of America.‌ The United States Army serves as the land-based branch of the U.S. Armed Forces . Section 7062 of Title 10, U.S. Code defines the purpose of the army as: In 2018,

10168-661: The geographical status quo. Both navies kept the warships they had seized during the conflict. The army's major campaign against the Indians was fought in Florida against Seminoles . It took long wars (1818–1858) to finally defeat the Seminoles and move them to Oklahoma. The usual strategy in Indian wars was to seize control of the Indians' winter food supply, but that was no use in Florida where there

10292-466: The guidance would reverse the Total Force Policy which is an "essential ingredient to the successful application of military force". On 11 September 2001, 53 Army civilians (47 employees and six contractors) and 22 soldiers were among the 125 victims killed in the Pentagon in a terrorist attack when American Airlines Flight 77 commandeered by five Al-Qaeda hijackers slammed into the western side of

10416-501: The large ocean liners often squeezed 15,000 aboard. The U.S. obtained the use of one of the ocean liners, the British RMS ; Queen Mary , in exchange for 10 smaller U.S. vessels. The WSA and the army also converted 29 troopships into special carriers for tens of thousands of war brides, European women who had married American servicemen. The Magic Carpet fleet also included 48 hospital ships; these transported more than half

10540-699: The last of the American Indian Wars . U.S. Army troops also occupied several Southern states during the Reconstruction Era to protect freedmen . The key battles of the Spanish–American War of 1898 were fought by the Navy. Using mostly new volunteers , the U.S. forces defeated Spain in land campaigns in Cuba and played the central role in the Philippine–American War . Starting in 1910,

10664-544: The navy's Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) were also involved in Magic Carpet operations, amassing millions of flying hours in transport and cargo aircraft, though the total number of personnel returned home by aircraft was minuscule in comparison to the numbers carried by ship. United States Army The United States Army ( USA ) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces . It

10788-452: The need for unified control of air transport and bolstered by Pogue's memorandum, which recommended that at the least all Army air transportation should be unified under one command, submitted the issue to a board of officers with instructions to consider the whole problem. Before the board could make an official report, however, Arnold made a decision on 20 June 1942 which embodied substantially Pogue's second recommendation. The Ferrying Command

10912-517: The new Air Transport Command was given what the official history of the AAF described as "sweeping responsibilities": In addition, before the end of June plans by the Army's Services of Supply to create its own air transportation service were halted when the SOS agreed to transfer to the AAF all of its air transportation responsibilities and its responsibility for setting priorities for travel by military and commercial aircraft. The Contract Air Cargo Division

11036-723: The operation was given to the War Shipping Administration (WSA). Eligibility for repatriation was determined by the Adjusted Service Rating Score . The Navy was excluded from the initial European sealift, as the Pacific War was far from over, and the task of returning the troops was the sole responsibility of the Army and Merchant Marine . The WSA ordered the immediate conversion of 300 Liberty and Victory cargo ships into transports. Adequate port and docking facilities were also serious considerations along with

11160-607: The organization which controlled it, the Air Transport Command. ATC's origins begin during World War I with the need to transport aircraft supplies and materiel from the aircraft manufacturers to the maintenance facilities supporting the training bases in the United States. Railroads were used to move the equipment and aircraft from one base to another and to the Ports of Embarkation along the East Coast for subsequent sea shipment to

11284-523: The people of the United States to that effect. With that clear intention, the doors were opened for larger numbers of aircraft to be sent to the Royal Air Force to defend Great Britain. It was also clear that the pioneering efforts of the British would have to be expanded to accommodate the increased number of aircraft. However, the United States was not a belligerent nation and it was also a period of extreme diplomatic delicacy, when aircraft purchased by

11408-418: The projected end strength for the Regular Army (USA) was 480,893 soldiers; the Army National Guard (ARNG) had 336,129 soldiers and the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) had 188,703 soldiers; the combined-component strength of the U.S. Army was 1,005,725 soldiers. As a branch of the armed forces, the mission of the U.S. Army is "to fight and win our Nation's wars, by providing prompt, sustained land dominance, across

11532-535: The protection of Saudi Arabia . In January 1991 Operation Desert Storm commenced, a U.S.-led coalition which deployed over 500,000 troops, the bulk of them from U.S. Army formations, to drive out Iraqi forces . The campaign ended in total victory, as Western coalition forces routed the Iraqi Army . Some of the largest tank battles in history were fought during the Gulf war. The Battle of Medina Ridge , Battle of Norfolk and

11656-663: The remaining were swept into the BCT modernization program . By 2017, the Brigade Modernization project was completed and its headquarters, the Brigade Modernization Command, was renamed the Joint Modernization Command, or JMC. In response to Budget sequestration in 2013 , Army plans were to shrink to 1940 levels, although actual Active-Army end-strengths were projected to fall to some 450,000 troops by

11780-854: The route, prepared, briefed, and supported by the Ferrying Command, as were most of the aircraft and crews that would form the Ninth Air Force in the Middle East and the Tenth Air Force in India. Fighter aircraft for the Ninth and Tenth Air Forces and for the American Volunteer Group in China were shipped by water to the west coast of Africa where they were assembled and flown overland to their destinations. And, while ferrying operations were increasing steadily,

11904-517: The routes and services duplicated those of the Ferrying Command. Expedient attempts by Headquarters AAF to establish a clear division of authority were unsuccessful, particularly after the 50th Transport Wing was transferred at the end of April 1942 to a newly created organization, the "Air Transport Command" (a combat organization). This left ASC with only its civilian carriers, of which considerable friction existed with Ferrying Command which had let conflicting contracts to different carriers. Arnold saw

12028-588: The service chiefs from each of the four military services belonging to the Department of Defense who advise the president of the United States , the secretary of defense and the National Security Council on operational military matters, under the guidance of the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . In 1986, the Goldwater–Nichols Act mandated that operational control of

12152-479: The service of the army. By the twentieth century, the U.S. Army had mobilized the U.S. Volunteers on four occasions during each of the major wars of the nineteenth century. During World War I, the " National Army " was organized to fight the conflict, replacing the concept of U.S. Volunteers. It was demobilized at the end of World War I and was replaced by the Regular Army, the Organized Reserve Corps, and

12276-456: The services follows a chain of command from the president to the secretary of defense directly to the unified combatant commanders , who have control of all armed forces units in their geographic or function area of responsibility, thus the secretaries of the military departments (and their respective service chiefs underneath them) only have the responsibility to organize, train and equip their service components. The army provides trained forces to

12400-470: The side of Britain , France , Russia , Italy and the other Allies . U.S. troops were sent to the Western Front and were involved in the last offensives that ended the war. With the armistice in November 1918, the army once again decreased its forces. In 1939, estimates of the Army's strength ranged between 174,000 and 200,000 soldiers, smaller than that of Portugal 's, which ranked it 17th or 19th in

12524-411: The standard support role in an army. The U.S. Army's conventional combat capability currently consists of 11 active divisions and 1 deployable division headquarters (7th Infantry Division) as well as several independent maneuver units. Air Transport Command (United States Air Force) Air Transport Command ( ATC ) was a United States Air Force unit that was created during World War II as

12648-443: The state militias. In the 1920s and 1930s, the "career" soldiers were known as the " Regular Army " with the "Enlisted Reserve Corps" and "Officer Reserve Corps" augmented to fill vacancies when needed. In 1941, the " Army of the United States " was founded to fight World War II. The Regular Army, Army of the United States, the National Guard, and Officer/Enlisted Reserve Corps (ORC and ERC) existed simultaneously. After World War II,

12772-527: The states of California , Nevada , Utah , Colorado , Arizona , Wyoming and New Mexico . The American Civil War was the costliest war for the U.S. in terms of casualties. After most slave states , located in the southern U.S., formed the Confederate States , the Confederate States Army , led by former U.S. Army officers, mobilized a large fraction of Southern white manpower. Forces of

12896-412: The statutory authority to conduct all the affairs of the army under the authority, direction, and control of the secretary of defense . The chief of staff of the Army , who is the highest-ranked military officer in the army, serves as the principal military adviser and executive agent for the secretary of the Army, i.e., its service chief; and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , a body composed of

13020-470: The strategic airlift component of the United States Army Air Forces . It had two main missions, the first being the delivery of supplies and equipment between the United States and the overseas combat theaters; the second was the ferrying of aircraft from the manufacturing plants in the United States to where they were needed for training or for operational use in combat. ATC also operated

13144-547: The supervision of the command. Air transport services conducted by the Ferrying Command (before the Pearl Harbor attack), were first to Britain beginning July 1941 and later in October to Cairo. They were like courier services and were secondary to the major job for which the command was created, that of ferrying aircraft from US factories to Canada and onward to Britain or to US ports of embarkation. Probably no one then foresaw that

13268-572: The takeover of South Korea by North Korea and later to invade the northern nation. After repeated advances and retreats by both sides and the Chinese People's Volunteer Army 's entry into the war, the Korean Armistice Agreement returned the peninsula to the status quo in July 1953. The Vietnam War is often regarded as a low point for the U.S. Army due to the use of drafted personnel ,

13392-586: The theater for the joint force, and to integrate national, multinational, and joint power on land. The Continental Army was created on 14 June 1775 by the Second Continental Congress as a unified army for the colonies to fight Great Britain , with George Washington appointed as its commander. The army was initially led by men who had served in the British Army or colonial militias and who brought much of British military heritage with them. As

13516-687: The total number of active divisions had dropped from 89 to 12. The leaders of the Army saw this demobilization as a success. In the Pacific War , U.S. Army soldiers participated alongside the United States Marine Corps in capturing the Pacific Islands from Japanese control. Following the Axis surrenders in May (Germany) and August (Japan) of 1945, army troops were deployed to Japan and Germany to occupy

13640-639: The trans-Atlantic leg during the first six months of 1942, strained its facilities and personnel to the limit. Lend-lease aircraft and supplies were sent over the route to the British forces in Egypt and the Russians through Persia , with a smaller volume going via India into China. The earliest heavy bomber reinforcements sent to the US Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific following the Japanese attack traveled over

13764-812: The transfer point, the crew returned to either Seattle or Los Angeles by rail. After Pearl Harbor, the scope of Ferrying Command's mission within the United States expanded to the domestic ferrying of all multi-engine Army aircraft, all British and Lend-Lease aircraft, and with the air movement of troops by domestic airlines as well. On 3 January 1942, the wing was divided into six geographic sectors. The sectors and headquarters were: * Northwest Sector , Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington * California Sector , Long Beach Municipal Airport, California * Middle Western Sector , Hensley Field, Dallas, Texas * Nashville Sector , Berry Field, Nashville, Tennessee * Detroit Sector , Wayne County Airport, Romulus, Michigan * Northeast Sector , Logan Field, Baltimore, Maryland From

13888-458: The transportation necessary to take the veterans to demobilization camps after they reached America's shores. There were 3,059,000 service men and women in Europe, Africa and the Mediterranean on VE-Day . The first homeward-bound ships left Europe in late June 1945, and by November, the sealift was at its height. Whereas American shipping had delivered an average of 148,000 soldiers per month to

14012-1004: The two defeated nations. Two years after World War II, the Army Air Forces separated from the army to become the United States Air Force in September 1947. In 1948, the army was desegregated by order 9981 of President Harry S. Truman . The end of World War II set the stage for the East–West confrontation known as the Cold War . With the outbreak of the Korean War , concerns over the defense of Western Europe rose. Two corps, V and VII , were reactivated under Seventh United States Army in 1950 and U.S. strength in Europe rose from one division to four. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops remained stationed in West Germany, with others in Belgium ,

14136-604: The unpopularity of the war with the U.S. public and frustrating restrictions placed on the military by U.S. political leaders. While U.S. forces had been stationed in South Vietnam since 1959, in intelligence and advising/training roles, they were not deployed in large numbers until 1965, after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident . U.S. forces effectively established and maintained control of the "traditional" battlefield, but they struggled to counter

14260-568: The world in size. General George C. Marshall became Army chief of staff in September 1939 and set about expanding and modernizing the Army in preparation for war. The United States joined World War II in December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . Some 11 million Americans were to serve in various Army operations. On the European front , U.S. Army troops formed a significant portion of

14384-535: The worldwide nature of the conflict, was to ferry them under their own power. Also, to keep aircraft at their highest efficiency, an air transport system for the rapid delivery of spare engines and parts, auxiliary equipment of all kinds, flight crews, and ground personnel became an absolute necessity, and supplementary to the traditional and considerably slower method of surface transport. During 1941, four major air routes were developed. These were: Secondary routes between Australia and India, and between Australia and

14508-565: Was adopted by Chief of Staff of the Army General Creighton Abrams in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and involved treating the three components of the army – the Regular Army , the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve as a single force. General Abrams' intertwining of the three components of the army effectively made extended operations impossible without the involvement of both the Army National Guard and Army Reserve in

14632-859: Was at first very small and after General St. Clair's defeat at the Battle of the Wabash, where more than 800 soldiers were killed, the Regular Army was reorganized as the Legion of the United States , established in 1791 and renamed the United States Army in 1796. In 1798, during the Quasi-War with France, the U.S. Congress established a three-year " Provisional Army " of 10,000 men, consisting of twelve regiments of infantry and six troops of light dragoons . In March 1799, Congress created an "Eventual Army" of 30,000 men, including three regiments of cavalry . Both "armies" existed only on paper, but equipment for 3,000 men and horses

14756-532: Was increasing for both the Army Air Corps and for purchase by the British. As produced and ready for delivery at the factory, these aircraft were flyable but also needed modifications before they were ready for combat service. It was advantageous to fly the aircraft to a separate modification center where changes could be made, rather than implementing these changes on the production line that would interrupt production. United States civilian pilots, contracted by

14880-498: Was no winter. The second strategy was to form alliances with other Indian tribes, but that too was useless because the Seminoles had destroyed all the other Indians when they entered Florida in the late eighteenth century. The U.S. Army fought and won the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), which was a defining event for both countries. The U.S. victory resulted in acquisition of territory that eventually became all or parts of

15004-645: Was operating worldwide with the Army, Navy, and WSA pooling their resources to expedite the troop-lift. December 1945 saw the highest number of troops returning from the Pacific at nearly 700,000. 29 troop transports carrying more than 200,000 soldiers, sailors, and Marines from the China-Burma-India theater arrived home in April 1946. The last of the troops to return from the Pacific war zone (127,300) arrived home in September 1946. The Army's Air Transport Command (ATC) and

15128-583: Was procured and stored. The War of 1812 , the second and last war between the United States and Great Britain, had mixed results. The U.S. Army did not conquer Canada but it did destroy Native American resistance to expansion in the Old Northwest and stopped two major British invasions in 1814 and 1815. After taking control of Lake Erie in 1813, the U.S. Army seized parts of western Upper Canada, burned York and defeated Tecumseh , which caused his Western Confederacy to collapse. Following U.S. victories in

15252-497: Was quickly given land certificates and disbanded in a reflection of the republican distrust of standing armies. State militias became the new nation's sole ground army, except a regiment to guard the Western Frontier and one battery of artillery guarding West Point 's arsenal. However, because of continuing conflict with Native Americans , it was soon considered necessary to field a trained standing army. The Regular Army

15376-577: Was renamed the Air Transport Command and the organization already bearing that name became the I Troop Carrier Command to reflect its mission of training crews and units for the combat lifts of parachute and airborne infantry. A change of command at AAF Ferrying Command took place in the meantime. In March 1942 General Olds was stricken with a heart attack, and was replaced by Colonel (eventually Lieutenant General) Harold L. George , who remained as ATC's wartime commander. Effective 1 July 1942,

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