100 Fun Facts About US Army

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

The Continental Congress created the Continental Army on June 14, 1775, a day before naming Washington its commander. That makes the Army older than the nation, and June 14 is also Flag Day.

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

Washington resigned in Annapolis, where Congress was sitting in the Maryland State House on December 23, 1783. Most of the Continental Army had already been disbanded after the Treaty of Paris.

What is the official motto of the United States Army?

'This We'll Defend' has been the Army motto since its 1778 seal, where a rattlesnake holds the scroll above 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?

The tune was 'The Caissons Go Rolling Along', written by Edmund L. Gruber in the Philippines in 1908; John Philip Sousa reworked it as the U.S. Field Artillery March in 1917 before it became the Army song.

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

The 3rd Infantry Regiment is The Old Guard, tracing its origins to the First American Regiment of 1784. It escorts the President, conducts Arlington funerals and posts the Tomb sentinels.

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

The 1st Infantry Division is The Big Red One for the red numeral 1 on its shoulder patch. Organized in 1917, it is the oldest continuously serving Regular Army division and landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day.

Which nickname belongs to the 101st Airborne Division?

The 101st Airborne Division is the Screaming Eagles, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky and reorganized as an air assault division in 1974. 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?

Formed in 1917, the 82nd drew soldiers from every one of the 48 states, hence 'All American' and the AA patch. 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 answered 'Nuts!', a reply that baffled the German officers, who had to have it explained. Patton's Third Army broke the siege of Bastogne days later.

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

At Pointe du Hoc the guns had been moved inland, but the Rangers found and disabled them anyway. Ronald Reagan honoured the survivors there on the 40th anniversary in 1984.

Ranger School's final swamp phase is run from Camp Rudder in which state?

Ranger School ends with its Florida phase at Camp James E. Rudder on Eglin Air Force Base, where students patrol the swamps; the earlier phases are held in Georgia.

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

John F. Kennedy authorized the green beret in 1961, calling it 'a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom.' The Special Forces 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?

An ODA has 12 soldiers, each with a specific job, and 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?

Beckwith had served on exchange with the British SAS in the early 1960s and built Delta on its model; the unit was established on November 19, 1977. Its first major mission, Operation Eagle Claw in 1980, failed after helicopter breakdowns.

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

Thomas Jefferson signed the Military Peace Establishment Act on March 16, 1802, founding the academy. West Point is the oldest continuously operating Army post in the country, and its graduates are known as the Long Gray Line.

What is the three-word motto of West Point?

West Point's motto is Duty, Honor, Country, and 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?

Army adopted the mule in 1899 to honour the animal that hauled its 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?

Henry O. Flipper, born into slavery in Georgia, graduated in 1877 and served with the 10th Cavalry. He was court-martialed on disputed charges in 1881 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?

John J. Pershing was promoted to General of the Armies in 1919 after leading the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI. Washington and Grant hold the rank only posthumously.

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

Ulysses S. Grant was posthumously promoted to General of the Armies by the defense act signed in December 2022. George Washington received the same honour in 1976, effective July 4 of that year, ranking above every officer past or present.

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

Omar Bradley received his fifth star in September 1950. The rank had been created in December 1944, when the other four holders were appointed within a week, and Bradley 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 Abrams runs on a gas turbine, the Honeywell AGT1500, which 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 Sergeant Major of the Army post was created in July 1966; its first holder, William O. Wooldridge, was serving with the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam when chosen. The Marine Corps had created the equivalent post in 1957.

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

Corporal is the lowest NCO rank. It and Specialist both sit at pay grade E-4, but only the corporal carries NCO authority, while a private E-1 wears no insignia at all.

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

The Specialist insignia is an eagle on a shield-shaped patch rather than chevrons, which soldiers nickname the 'sham shield'. Specialist is the Army's largest single rank by headcount.

Which Army post is the largest basic training center, handling about half of all new soldiers?

Fort Jackson, South Carolina, founded as Camp Jackson in 1917 and named for Andrew Jackson, 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?

Fort Knox is named for Henry Knox, Washington's artillery chief and the first Secretary of War. It hosted the Armor School from 1940 until the school moved to Georgia in 2011.

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

Fort Bragg became Fort Liberty in June 2023. The Bragg name 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?

Fort Leavenworth, founded in 1827, houses the Command and General Staff College and the United States Disciplinary Barracks. Eisenhower graduated first in his staff college class there in 1926.

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

The 442nd was made up of Japanese American soldiers under the motto '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 Buffalo Soldiers, a nickname usually credited to Plains Indian warriors, patrolled Yosemite and Sequoia between 1899 and 1904 and built the first trail up Mount Whitney in 1903.

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

Oveta Culp Hobby led the corps from its start as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in May 1942; it 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 of 1947 created the independent Air Force on September 18 of that year. 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?

About 11 million Americans served in the Army during World War II, including the Army Air Forces, out of roughly 16 million who served in all branches.

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

The Medal of Honor is awarded in the name of Congress. 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?

Mary Edwards Walker earned the Medal of Honor 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?

Murphy played himself in To Hell and Back, Universal's biggest hit until Jaws. He had won the Medal of Honor at 19 for holding off a German attack from atop a burning tank destroyer in January 1945.

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

York captured 132 Germans in the Argonne after killing about 25 with rifle and pistol. 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?

George Washington created the Badge of Military Merit in 1782. It was revived as the Purple Heart on his 200th birthday in 1932 and bears his profile.

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

Daniel Butterfield reworked an earlier call with his bugler Oliver Norton in July 1862. The 24-note 'Taps' uses only the notes of a C major chord, and 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?

G.I. stood for galvanized iron, stamped on buckets and trash cans. By World War I it was reinterpreted as 'government issue', and by World War II it meant the soldier himself.

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

MRE stands for Meal, Ready-to-Eat; soldiers nicknamed early versions 'Meals Rejected by Everyone'. A flameless chemical heater was added in 1990.

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

Essayons means 'Let us try'. The Corps of Engineers 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?

The Massachusetts Bay Colony organized its militia into regiments on December 13, 1636, the date the Guard counts as its birthday, making it older than the Army itself. Governors can call up Guard units for domestic emergencies.

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

The Army Green Service Uniform, unveiled in 2018, revives the 'pinks and greens' worn by World War II officers. Rangers, Special Forces and airborne units stand out by beret colour: tan, green and maroon.

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

The Golden Knights are the Army's parachute demonstration team, formed in 1959 by Brigadier General Joseph Stilwell Jr.; they jump at events from county fairs to nationally televised games.

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

Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York supplied beef to the Army during the War of 1812, his barrels 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, and the building was finished in January 1943, about 16 months later. Its five floors hold about 17.5 miles of corridors.

Which Army general commanded the coalition forces in the 1991 Gulf War?

Norman Schwarzkopf, a West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, led U.S. Central Command through Operation Desert Storm in 1991; the ground war lasted about 100 hours.

Who became Army chief of staff on September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland?

George C. Marshall was sworn in as chief of staff on September 1, 1939, hours after Germany invaded Poland, and grew the Army from about 190,000 soldiers to more than eight million by 1945.

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

Creighton Abrams, chief of staff from 1972 to 1974, built the force so that extended operations were 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?

The fiscal 2022 plan came to about 1 million soldiers: roughly 485,000 Regulars, 336,000 National Guard and 189,500 Army Reserve.

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

The 2nd Infantry Division, based in South Korea, had no brigade combat teams of its own and relied on armored brigades rotating in from divisions in the United States.

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

The 11th Airborne Division was reactivated in Alaska in June 2022, taking over two brigade combat teams from the 25th Infantry Division.

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

The M7, Sig Sauer's 6.8 mm rifle from the Next Generation Squad Weapon program, went first to the 101st Airborne Division in 2024 alongside the M250 automatic rifle; the M4 it replaces is a compact variant of the M16.

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

The M224 is a 60 mm mortar normally assigned at company level; battalions get 81 mm M252s and mechanised units the 120 mm M120/M121.

What was the code name of the December 1989 US invasion that ousted Manuel Noriega?

Operation Just Cause began on December 20, 1989; the 82nd Airborne and Rangers made combat parachute jumps, and Noriega surrendered on January 3, 1990.

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

The Davy Crockett fired a W54 warhead from a 120 mm or 155 mm recoilless rifle over a few kilometres; at the other end of the scale was the Pershing II ballistic missile.

Which baseball pioneer was court-martialled as an Army officer for refusing to sit at the back of a bus?

Jackie Robinson was acquitted by an all-white panel of nine officers in August 1944. The trial kept him from shipping out with the 761st Tank Battalion, so he never saw combat.

Which American writer deliberately got himself thrown out of West Point as a cadet in 1831?

Edgar Allan Poe skipped formations, lessons and church until he was put on trial for gross neglect. He pleaded not guilty knowing he would be convicted, which won him the dismissal he wanted.

Which animals did the Army ship from the Mediterranean in the 1850s to carry supplies across the American Southwest?

Camels landed at Indianola, Texas, in 1856, 34 of them, after a Navy ship toured ports from Tunisia to Egypt. They proved hardy on the trail, but the Army never adopted them.

Which chocolate candy, launched in 1941, was sold only to the American military during World War II?

M&M's sealed their chocolate inside a hard sugar shell, so troops could carry them in hot climates without a melted mess. Forrest Mars is said to have taken the idea from candies he saw soldiers eating in the Spanish Civil War.

Which pair led the Corps of Discovery, an Army unit, across the continent to the Pacific from 1804?

Lewis and Clark were both Army officers, and most of the men they led were enlisted soldiers. Only one of the party died on the journey: Sergeant Charles Floyd, apparently of appendicitis.

Which rock and roll star was drafted into the Army in 1958 and served with a tank battalion in West Germany?

Elvis Presley could have joined Special Services and kept performing, but he served as a regular soldier in the 3rd Armored Division. He met Priscilla Beaulieu while posted there.

Which Apollo astronaut finished third among West Point's 1951 graduates before choosing to fly jets?

Buzz Aldrin took his commission in the Air Force, which had no academy of its own yet. He flew 66 combat missions in F-86 Sabres and shot down two MiG-15s before joining NASA.

Which Second World War Army weapon took its nickname from comedian Bob Burns's novelty horn?

Bazooka was the name of an instrument made of sliding pipes that Bob Burns invented and played on 1930s radio. A general watching a test firing remarked that the new launcher looked like Burns's horn.

Which Apache leader's name became the jump shout of the Army's first airborne soldiers at Fort Benning?

Geronimo caught on in 1940; in one account, Private Aubrey Eberhardt yelled it on his jump to prove he was not too frightened to remember a name.

Which student keepsake, now common at American schools and colleges, began with West Point's graduates of 1835?

Class rings started as a West Point idea and spread nationwide. The academy now accepts rings donated by old graduates, melts them down and works the gold into the rings of each new class.

Which secret wartime programme did the Army Corps of Engineers run under Major General Leslie Groves from 1942?

The Manhattan Project, which built the atomic bomb, was named for the Army engineer district that ran it, whose first headquarters were in Manhattan. Groves had been overseeing construction of the Pentagon when he was picked to lead it.

Arlington National Cemetery was established in 1864 on the confiscated estate of which Confederate general's family?

Robert E. Lee's family lost the estate in a wartime tax dispute. In 1882 the Supreme Court ruled in the family's favour, and Lee's son then sold the land back to the government for $150,000.

Which city, roughly halfway between the two rival academies, has hosted the Army–Navy football game most often?

Philadelphia became the game's regular home in 1899, when the rivalry resumed at the new Franklin Field after five seasons off. The first four games had alternated between the two campuses.

The US Military Academy at West Point stands on high ground above which river, 50 miles north of New York City?

Hudson River ships had to slow for a narrow S-curve at West Point, where the Continental Army stretched a great chain across the water to stop the Royal Navy sailing upriver.

Which Continental Army general plotted in 1780 to hand the fort at West Point to the British for £20,000?

Benedict Arnold fled to British lines after militiamen caught Major André carrying papers that exposed the plot. André was hanged; Arnold was made a brigadier general in the British Army.

Which foreign volunteer arrived at Valley Forge in 1778 and drilled the ragged Continental Army into shape?

Baron von Steuben spoke little English, so he wrote his drills in French and had aides including Alexander Hamilton help translate them. His 'Blue Book' remained the Army's drill manual for decades.

Which nickname was given to the American infantrymen who sailed to France to fight in 1917 and 1918?

Doughboys were young, with an average age under 25, and the name lasted until 'G.I.' pushed it out in the early 1940s. Where the word came from is uncertain.

Which rock guitarist served with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell before his discharge in 1962?

Jimi Hendrix was given a choice between prison and the Army after twice being caught riding in stolen cars. He enlisted in May 1961 and was discharged thirteen months later.

Which Arizona Cardinals player turned down a $3.6 million contract to join the Army Rangers in 2002?

Pat Tillman played out the season that followed the September 11 attacks, then enlisted in May 2002. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2004, by what the Pentagon later told his family was friendly fire.

Which word stands for the letter F in the phonetic alphabet soldiers use to spell out words over the radio?

Foxtrot belongs to a set of 26 code words fixed by civil aviation's governing body in the mid-1950s and chosen to stay distinct over a crackly line. Alfa and Juliett are misspelled on purpose so nobody mispronounces them.

Which chore became the stock image of a soldier on Army 'KP' in mid-century films and comic strips?

Peeling potatoes was only part of it: KP, short for kitchen police, also meant washing dishes and bussing tables. 'Police' here is military slang for cleaning up.

Which bugle call rouses soldiers near sunrise on Army posts and is sounded as the national flag is raised?

Reveille takes its name from the French for 'wake up'. Soldiers outdoors when it sounds must come to attention and salute the flag, or face the music if the flag is out of sight.

Which all-purpose Army shout, said to mean anything except no, is the soldier's answer to the Marines' 'Oorah'?

Hooah is so much a part of Army life that a military energy bar was named after it. Sailors and Coast Guardsmen shout hooyah instead.

The Army's High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, fielded in the 1980s, is better known by which nickname?

Humvee is how soldiers say the initials HMMWV. The truck's desert service in the 1991 Gulf War helped inspire the civilian Hummer, a name its maker AM General had trademarked from the prototypes.

Which broad-brimmed hat with a pinched crown, also worn by Smokey Bear, is the trademark of Army drill sergeants?

The campaign hat in its 'Montana peak' shape became official Army wear in 1911. The Army stopped issuing it to ordinary soldiers in 1942, and Marine drill instructors took it up in 1956.

Troops of the Army's 4th Infantry Division helped pull which fugitive dictator from a 'spider hole' in December 2003?

Saddam Hussein was found at a remote farm compound near Tikrit. The raid was code-named Red Dawn after the 1984 film, and its two target sites were Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2.

Camp Humphreys, the largest American military base overseas, is an Army garrison in which country?

South Korea agreed in 2004 to gather American forces south of the Han River, and the headquarters left Seoul for Camp Humphreys. The post lies about 60 miles from the Demilitarized Zone.

Which structure is the branch insignia of the Army Corps of Engineers, formally adopted in 1902?

A castle was worn by West Point cadets as early as 1841, long before it became official. Each Chief of Engineers now inherits a pair of gold castle pins that once belonged to Douglas MacArthur.

Recruits in basic training learn the seven Army Values, among them respect and integrity, using which acronym?

LDRSHIP, said as 'leadership', takes one letter from each value: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage.

Which Army officer became the first woman in American military history to reach four-star rank, in 2008?

Ann Dunwoody had already been the first woman to command a battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division, in 1992. She received her fourth star as head of Army Materiel Command.

A surprise German attack through the Ardennes in December 1944 began which clash, the Army's bloodiest against Hitler?

The Battle of the Bulge was named by the press for the way the front line bulged on wartime news maps. It was the largest single battle the United States fought in the war.

The 4th Infantry Division's insignia shows four leaves of which plant, a pun on the Roman way of writing four?

Ivy sounds like I-V, the letters of the Roman four. The division adopted the badge at Camp Greene, and the leaves also stand for its motto, 'Steadfast and Loyal'.

Which pioneering 1940s computer was built for the Army to calculate firing tables for its guns?

ENIAC was financed by the Army Ordnance Corps and completed in 1945 as the first programmable, general-purpose electronic digital computer. Until then the tables were ground out on desk calculators.

Which first American satellite reached orbit in 1958 on a rocket prepared by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency?

Explorer 1 rode a modified Jupiter-C rocket and was the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt. It kept sending data for nearly four months, until its batteries ran out.

Which Massachusetts woman served 17 months in the Continental Army disguised as a man, until a fever exposed her?

Deborah Sampson enlisted under a man's name in 1782 and was shot in the thigh and cut on the forehead in action. Once found out, she was honourably discharged at West Point.

Which nickname belongs to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, whose pilots flew the 2011 bin Laden raid?

The Night Stalkers carried Navy SEALs into Abbottabad in two Black Hawks specially modified for stealth. The regiment is based at Fort Campbell and flies most of its missions in darkness, low and fast.

Which truck convoy system, driven mostly by African-American soldiers, supplied the Allied advance out of Normandy?

The Red Ball Express ran nearly 6,000 trucks at its peak, hauling about 12,500 tons of supplies a day along a marked route closed to civilian traffic. The name was old railway slang for priority freight.

Which Army decoration for extraordinary heroism, established in 1918, ranks second only to the Medal of Honor?

The Distinguished Service Cross was created so that heroism falling short of the top medal could also be recognised, as European armies already did. The first hundred were rushed out in an early design.

Which future secretary of state earned his Army commission through ROTC at the City College of New York in 1958?

Colin Powell called himself a C-average geology student who found something he liked in ROTC. He rose to four-star general and chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993.

Which cavalry commander graduated last in his West Point class of 34 in June 1861?

George A. Custer ran up 726 demerits at the academy, one of the worst conduct records in its history. Dozens of his classmates had already dropped out or resigned to join the Confederacy.