U.S. Army Healthcare Recruiter - Jessie Gregory

THE MEXICAN WAR

In 1846, the United States and Mexico went to war following a period of border tensions. This conflict featured several Army Officers who would go on to become important figures in American history, including Gen. Zachary Taylor, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, and Winfield Scott.

THE CIVIL WAR

In 1860, after a long-standing dispute over states’ rights to allow their citizens to own slaves, southern states began seceding from the Union. The war that followed would become one of the most important conflicts in American history. During the secession, almost one-third of regular Army Officers resigned to join the Confederacy, and more than three million American Soldiers would serve by the time the war ended in 1865.

THE WORLD WARS

As the United States rebuilt in the aftermath of the Civil War, total Army strength grew relatively slowly until the mid-1900s. The World War I era saw the creation of several important Army branches, including the Veterinarian Corps, the Chemical Corps, and the Aviation Section within the Army Signal Corps, the precursor to the Air Force. World War II led to several more milestones in Army history, including the creation of the Office of Strategic Services, which became the CIA, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s introduction of the G.I. Bill. Two years after the war, the Army established the Medical Service Corps, later renamed the Army Medical Department (AMEDD).

AFTER WORLD WAR II

Following World War II, the United States entered a standoff period with Soviet Russia, known as the Cold War, leading to conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. During the 1980s, the Army began to reorganize to focus on training and technology. By the end of the decade, the Pentagon introduced plans to reduce total Army strength. In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the end to the Cold War. In 1991, American and allied forces responded to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. The ground campaign lasted just 100 hours before a ceasefire was declared. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, American and coalition forces would again enter into a conflict in the Middle East against terrorist forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

TODAY’S ARMY

Today, the Army is made up of more than 700,000 Soldiers, including active duty and Army Reserve personnel. Army Soldiers fill many roles. They are doctors, lawyers, and engineers; they are electricians, computer programmers, and helicopter pilots; they are police officers, logistics experts and civil affairs representatives. The Army’s constant need for a diverse range of individual Soldiers, each with his or her own expertise is what sets it apart from other military branches.