60 Fun Facts About US Army

On which date was the Continental Army created, a date now celebrated as the Army's birthday?

That makes the Army older than the United States itself. The date is also Flag Day.

In which city did Washington resign his commission as commander-in-chief on December 23, 1783?

Congress was sitting in the Maryland State House at the time. Most of the Continental Army had already been disbanded after the Treaty of Paris.

What is the official motto of the United States Army?

It appears on the Army seal beneath a Roman cuirass and flags. Semper Fidelis belongs to the Marines.

The Army's official song grew out of a 1908 tune about which horse-drawn artillery wagons?

Edmund L. Gruber wrote the original in the Philippines, and John Philip Sousa turned it into the U.S. Field Artillery March in 1917. New lyrics were added when it became the Army song.

What is the nickname of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, which guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

It traces its origins to the First American Regiment of 1784. It also serves as escort to the President and conducts funerals at Arlington.

The 1st Infantry Division is called 'The Big Red One' because of what?

Organized in 1917, it is the oldest continuously serving division in the Regular Army and landed in the first wave at Omaha Beach on D-Day.

Which nickname belongs to the 101st Airborne Division?

Based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, it is now an air assault division built around helicopters rather than parachutes. HBO's Band of Brothers followed its Easy Company, 506th Regiment.

The 82nd Airborne earned its 'All American' nickname in World War I because its soldiers came from where?

That is why its patch reads 'AA'. It made its fourth and final WWII combat jump in Operation Market Garden in 1944.

With which single word did the 101st's acting commander reply to the German surrender demand at Bastogne in 1944?

Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe's reply baffled the German officers, who had to have it explained. Patton's Third Army broke the siege days later.

On D-Day the 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled 90-foot cliffs to destroy German guns at which point?

The guns had been moved inland, but the Rangers found and disabled them anyway. Ronald Reagan honoured the survivors there on the 40th anniversary.

The 75th Ranger Regiment's Latin motto 'Sua Sponte' means what?

It reflects that Rangers volunteer three times: for the Army, for airborne school and for the Regiment. Ranger School itself lasts 61 days.

Which president authorized the green beret as the exclusive headgear of Army Special Forces in 1961?

He called it 'a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom.' Their motto De Oppresso Liber means 'to free the oppressed'.

A Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha, the classic 'A-team', is made up of how many soldiers?

Each has a specific job, and the team can split into two six-man elements. Their core mission is training and leading guerrilla forces in occupied countries.

Delta Force founder Charles Beckwith modelled the unit on which foreign special forces regiment he had served with?

The unit was formally established on November 19, 1977. Its first major mission, the 1980 Iran hostage rescue Operation Eagle Claw, was aborted after helicopter failures.

Which president signed the 1802 act establishing the United States Military Academy at West Point?

West Point is the oldest continuously operating Army post in the country. Its graduates are known as the Long Gray Line.

What is the three-word motto of West Point?

Douglas MacArthur built his famous 1962 farewell speech to the cadets around those three words. Women were first admitted to the academy in 1976.

Which animal has been the mascot of West Point's sports teams since 1899?

The choice honoured the animal that hauled Army supplies and guns for a century. Navy counters with a goat at the annual Army-Navy Game.

Who was the first Black graduate of West Point, in 1877?

Born into slavery in Georgia, he went on to serve with the 10th Cavalry. He was court-martialed on disputed charges and received a posthumous pardon in 1999.

Who is the only officer to have held the Army's highest rank, General of the Armies, during his own lifetime?

He was promoted in 1919 after leading the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI. Only two others hold the rank, both posthumously.

Which Civil War general was posthumously promoted to General of the Armies by a 2020s defense act?

The nation's first president received the same honour in 1976, backdated to July 4 of that year, with precedence over every officer past or present.

Who was the last officer promoted to five-star General of the Army, in 1950?

The five-star rank was created in December 1944, and the other four holders were all appointed within a week of each other that month. He remained the last living five-star general until his death in 1981.

The M1 Abrams tank is unusual among tanks for being powered by what kind of engine?

The Honeywell AGT1500 turbine puts out 1,500 horsepower and can burn several fuels. The tank is named for General Creighton Abrams and first fought in the 1991 Gulf War.

The UH-60 Black Hawk continues an Army tradition of naming its helicopters after what?

Its namesake is the Sauk leader Black Hawk. It replaced the Vietnam-era Huey in 1979, and stealth-modified versions carried the SEALs on the 2011 bin Laden raid.

In which year was the position of Sergeant Major of the Army created?

The first holder, William O. Wooldridge, was chosen from about 4,700 candidates while serving in Vietnam. The Marine Corps had created the equivalent post in 1957.

What is the lowest non-commissioned officer rank in the US Army?

Both it and Specialist sit at pay grade E-4, but only one carries NCO authority. A private E-1 wears no insignia at all.

The rank insignia of an Army Specialist (E-4) features which symbol instead of chevrons?

Soldiers nickname it the 'sham shield'. Specialists are the Army's largest single rank by headcount.

Which South Carolina post is the Army's largest basic training center, handling half of all new soldiers?

Founded as Camp Jackson in 1917 and named for Andrew Jackson, it puts roughly 35,000 recruits a year through ten weeks of basic combat training.

Which Kentucky Army post sits beside the US Bullion Depository holding much of the nation's gold?

The post is named for Henry Knox, Washington's artillery chief and the first Secretary of War. It hosted the Armor School for 60 years until it moved to Georgia in 2011.

What was Fort Bragg renamed in 2023, before the old name returned in 2025?

The name Fort Bragg came back in 2025, this time honouring WWII paratrooper Private First Class Roland L. Bragg rather than the Confederate general Braxton Bragg.

Which 1827 Kansas post houses the Command and General Staff College and the DoD's only maximum-security prison?

Almost every Army major passes through its staff college, as did every future five-star general. It was never attacked despite its frontier role.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated US unit of its size, was made up of soldiers of which ancestry?

Its motto was 'Go for Broke'. Members earned 21 Medals of Honor, including future senator Daniel Inouye, and rescued the 'Lost Battalion' in the Vosges in 1944.

Which all-Black Army regiments, formed in 1866, served as early rangers of Yosemite and Sequoia national parks?

The nickname is usually credited to Plains Indian warriors. Between 1899 and 1904 the troops built the first trail up Mount Whitney.

Who was the first director of the Women's Army Corps when it was created during World War II?

It began as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in May 1942 and was folded into the regular Army in 1978. MacArthur called the WACs 'my best soldiers'.

In which year did the Army Air Forces split away to become the independent US Air Force?

The National Security Act made the change on September 18. Under Hap Arnold the Army's air arm had grown to 2.4 million people and nearly 80,000 aircraft.

Roughly how many Americans served in the Army during World War II?

That included the Army Air Forces. Today the active-duty Army numbers about 450,000.

The Medal of Honor is presented by the President in the name of which body?

The Army version, created in 1862, is a gold star bearing the head of Minerva. About 3,500 have been awarded, over 40 percent for the Civil War.

Who is the only woman ever awarded the Medal of Honor?

She earned it as a civilian Army surgeon in the Civil War. It was revoked in 1917 along with hundreds of others and restored in 1977.

Audie Murphy, the most decorated American combat soldier of WWII, played himself in which 1955 film?

He won the Medal of Honor at 19 for holding off a German attack from atop a burning tank destroyer. The film was Universal's biggest hit to that point.

How many German prisoners did Sergeant Alvin York capture on October 8, 1918?

The Tennessee marksman had originally sought conscientious-objector status. Gary Cooper won an Oscar playing him in 1941's Sergeant York.

The Purple Heart descends from the Badge of Military Merit, created in 1782 by whom?

The medal was revived on his 200th birthday in 1932 and bears his profile, making it the oldest US military award still given.

Which Union general arranged the bugle call 'Taps' at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, in 1862?

The 24-note call uses only the notes of a C major chord. Both Union and Confederate armies adopted it within months.

Sergeant Stubby, WWI mascot dog of the 102nd Infantry, was credited with single-handedly capturing what?

The Boston terrier mix served 18 months and 17 battles, and his preserved body is in the Smithsonian. Two Purple Hearts were among his decorations.

The term 'G.I.' for an American soldier originally stood for what on Army paperwork?

It was stamped on buckets and trash cans. By WWI it was reinterpreted as 'government issue', and by 1935 it meant the soldier himself.

What does the acronym MRE, the Army's standard field ration since 1981, stand for?

Soldiers nicknamed early versions 'Meals Rejected by Everyone'. A flameless chemical heater was added in 1990, and there are now 24 menus.

'Essayons', the motto of the Army Corps of Engineers, is French for what?

The Corps finished the Washington Monument in 1884, oversaw the Panama Canal and ran the Manhattan Project. Its insignia is a castle.

The Army National Guard traces its origins to a militia regiment that first drilled in Salem in which year?

That makes the Guard older than the Army itself. Governors can call up Guard units for domestic emergencies under Title 32.

The Army's 'pinks and greens' service uniform revives an officers' uniform from which era?

Introduced in late 2018, it becomes mandatory for office wear by October 2027. The Rangers, Special Forces and 82nd Airborne still stand out by beret colour: tan, green and maroon.

'The Golden Knights' is the nickname of which Army unit?

Conceived by Brigadier General Joseph Stilwell in 1959, the team jumps at events from county fairs to nationally televised games.

Meatpacker Samuel Wilson, behind the 'Uncle Sam' legend, supplied Army rations during which war?

His barrels were said to be stamped 'U.S.'. James Montgomery Flagg's 1917 'I Want You' poster, printed four million times, fixed the character's look.

The Pentagon, home of Army headquarters, was built in roughly how many months during World War II?

Ground was broken on September 11, 1941, exactly 60 years before the 2001 attack. Its five floors hold about 17.5 miles of corridors.

Which anniversary did the Army mark with a June 2025 parade of tanks and 6,600 soldiers in Washington?

The date doubled as Flag Day and the president's 79th birthday, and the $25-45 million cost drew criticism from both parties.

In 1939 the US Army, ranked about 17th to 19th in the world, was smaller than which country's army?

George C. Marshall became chief of staff that September and set about expanding and modernising the force for war.

Which Army chief of staff adopted the Total Force Policy after Vietnam, binding Regulars, Guard and Reserve together?

The policy made extended operations impossible without Guard and Reserve support, a lesson applied in the Gulf War and Iraq.

What was the Army's approximate projected headcount for fiscal year 2022, across all three components?

That broke down as roughly 481,000 Regulars, 336,000 National Guard and 189,000 Army Reserve soldiers.

In the early 2020s, which active-duty Army division had no permanent brigade combat teams?

Based in South Korea, it relied on rotational Stryker brigades sent from divisions in the United States.

United States Army Alaska was reorganised into which Arctic-focused division?

Two brigade combat teams were transferred from the 25th Infantry Division to the new headquarters.

Which rifle did the Army begin fielding in 2024 to replace the M4 in close-combat units?

The M4 is a compact variant of the M16; the M17 pistol from the Modular Handgun System became the standard sidearm in 2017.

What is the calibre of the M224, the smallest mortar in the Army's inventory?

It is normally assigned at company level; battalions get 81 mm M252s and mechanised units the 120 mm M120/M121.

By how much did Pentagon planners propose cutting Army end strength in November 1989 as the Cold War ended?

The plan took the Army from 750,000 toward 580,000 soldiers, using incentives such as early retirement.

Which nuclear weapon, a recoilless rifle, was at the small end of the Army's Cold War tactical arsenal?

At the other end of the scale was the Pershing II ballistic missile.