60 free US Army trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
51 free US Army trivia questions with answers. The United States Army was born on June 14, 1775, a year before the country it serves, and it has spent two and a half centuries collecting nicknames, mottos, legends and lore. This US Army trivia quiz digs into all of it: the Continental Army and Washington's farewell, the storied divisions (the Big Red One, the All-Americans, the Screaming Eagles), elite units like the Rangers, Green Berets and Delta Force, and the enlisted and officer ranks from private to five-star general. You will also meet the heroes and oddities: Audie Murphy, Sergeant York, a WWI dog who caught a German spy, the surprising origin of 'G.I.', why the Army song is about caissons, and how the Purple Heart traces back to a scrap of purple cloth in 1782. Questions run from easy ones any recruit should know to expert ones that will test career soldiers and military-history buffs. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and official Army sources before publishing, and each question carries its citation. Use it for a veterans' event, a Memorial Day or Veterans Day quiz, a family history night, or just to find out how well you really know America's oldest service.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which date was the Continental Army created, a date now celebrated as the Army's birthday?
June 14, 1775
That makes the Army older than the United States itself. The date is also Flag Day.
Q 02In which city did Washington resign his commission as commander-in-chief on December 23, 1783?
Annapolis
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.
Q 03What is the official motto of the United States Army?
This We'll Defend
It appears on the Army seal beneath a Roman cuirass and flags. Semper Fidelis belongs to the Marines.
Q 04The Army's official song grew out of a 1908 tune about which horse-drawn artillery wagons?
Caissons
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.
Q 05What is the nickname of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, which guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?
The Old Guard
It traces its origins to the First American Regiment of 1784. It also serves as escort to the President and conducts funerals at Arlington.
Q 06The 1st Infantry Division is called 'The Big Red One' because of what?
Its red numeral shoulder patch
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.
Q 07Which nickname belongs to the 101st Airborne Division?
Screaming Eagles
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.
Q 08The 82nd Airborne earned its 'All American' nickname in World War I because its soldiers came from where?
Every one of the 48 states
That is why its patch reads 'AA'. It made its fourth and final WWII combat jump in Operation Market Garden in 1944.
Q 09With which single word did the 101st's acting commander reply to the German surrender demand at Bastogne in 1944?
Nuts!
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.
Q 10On D-Day the 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled 90-foot cliffs to destroy German guns at which point?
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.
Q 11The 75th Ranger Regiment's Latin motto 'Sua Sponte' means what?
Of their own accord
It reflects that Rangers volunteer three times: for the Army, for airborne school and for the Regiment. Ranger School itself lasts 61 days.
Q 12Which president authorized the green beret as the exclusive headgear of Army Special Forces in 1961?
John F. Kennedy
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'.
Q 13A Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha, the classic 'A-team', is made up of how many soldiers?
12
Q 21Who was the last officer promoted to five-star General of the Army, in 1950?
Omar Bradley
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.
Q 22The M1 Abrams tank is unusual among tanks for being powered by what kind of engine?
A gas turbine
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.
Q 23The UH-60 Black Hawk continues an Army tradition of naming its helicopters after what?
Native American tribes
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.
Q 14Delta Force founder Charles Beckwith modelled the unit on which foreign special forces regiment he had served with?
The British SAS
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.
Q 15Which president signed the 1802 act establishing the United States Military Academy at West Point?
Thomas Jefferson
West Point is the oldest continuously operating Army post in the country. Its graduates are known as the Long Gray Line.
Q 16What is the three-word motto of West Point?
Duty, Honor, Country
Douglas MacArthur built his famous 1962 farewell speech to the cadets around those three words. Women were first admitted to the academy in 1976.
Q 17Which animal has been the mascot of West Point's sports teams since 1899?
Mule
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.
Q 18Who was the first Black graduate of West Point, in 1877?
Henry O. Flipper
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.
Q 19Who is the only officer to have held the Army's highest rank, General of the Armies, during his own lifetime?
John J. Pershing
He was promoted in 1919 after leading the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI. Only two others hold the rank, both posthumously.
Q 20Which Civil War general was posthumously promoted to General of the Armies by a 2020s defense act?
Ulysses S. Grant
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.
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.
Q 24In which year was the position of Sergeant Major of the Army created?
1966
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.
Q 25What is the lowest non-commissioned officer rank in the US Army?
Corporal
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.
Q 26The rank insignia of an Army Specialist (E-4) features which symbol instead of chevrons?
An eagle
Soldiers nickname it the 'sham shield'. Specialists are the Army's largest single rank by headcount.
Q 27Which South Carolina post is the Army's largest basic training center, handling half of all new soldiers?
Fort Jackson
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.
Q 28Which Kentucky Army post sits beside the US Bullion Depository holding much of the nation's gold?
Fort Knox
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.
Q 29What was Fort Bragg renamed in 2023, before the old name returned in 2025?
Liberty
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.
Q 30Which 1827 Kansas post houses the Command and General Staff College and the DoD's only maximum-security prison?
Fort Leavenworth
Almost every Army major passes through its staff college, as did every future five-star general. It was never attacked despite its frontier role.