Military of the United States

United States armed forces
Military manpower
Military age	18 years of age
Availability	males & females ages 18-49: 134,813,023 (2005 est.)
Fit for military service	males & females ages 18-49: 109,305,756 (2005 est.)
Reaching military age annually	males & females: 4,180,074 (2005 est.)
Active troops	1,427,000 (Ranked 3rd)
Military expenditures
Dollar figure	$400 billion (FY2005 est.)
Percent of GDP	3.7% (FY2005 est.)

The armed forces (or armed services) of the United States of America consist of the

• United States Army
• United States Marine Corps
• United States Navy
• United States Air Force
• United States Coast Guard^{[{{fullurl:}}#endnote_CoastGuard]}

Approximately 1.4 million personnel are currently on active duty in the military with an additional 860,000 personnel in the seven reserve components (456,000 of which are in the Army and Air National Guard). There is currently no conscription. The armed forces are also members of the United States Uniformed Services. The United States Military is considered the most powerful military in the world because their power projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other singular nation (e.g. People's Republic of China, Russia, India) or organization (e.g. the European Union). The United States Department of Defense is the controlling organization for the U.S. military and is headquartered at The Pentagon. The Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military is the President of the United States. With a strength of 2.26 million personnel (including reserves), the United States armed forces are the 3rd largest in the world.

The United States military is a hierarchical military organization, with a system of military ranks to denote levels of authority within the organization. The military service is divided into a professional officer corps along with a greater number of enlisted personnel who perform day-to-day military operations. The United States officer corps is not restricted by social class or nobility. United States military officers are appointed from a variety of sources, including the service academies, ROTC, and direct appointment from both civilian status and the enlisted ranks.

The U.S. military also maintains a number of military awards and badges to denote the qualifications and accomplishments of military personnel.

On July 26, 1948 U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 which racially desegregated the military of the United States. Homosexuals, however, are still barred from serving openly (see Don't ask, don't tell.) By law, women may not be put into direct combat; however, asymmetrical warfare has put women into situations which are direct combat operations in all but name. (Approximately 9% of Army positions available; see [1] as an example).

Military of the United States	Image:Flag of the United States.svg
Image:USArmySeal.png U.S. Army | Image:NavySeal.png U.S. Navy | Image:USAF seal.png U.S. Air Force | Image:USMarineCorps.png U.S. Marine Corps | Image:USCGc.jpg U.S. Coast Guard

Image:American fighting man Time.jpg Image:American soldier Time.jpg

Contents 1 Capabilities 2 Organization 2.1 National Command organizational chart 2.2 Joint Chiefs of Staff 2.3 Unified Combatant Commands 3 Personnel 3.1 Recruitment 3.1.1 Enlisted 3.1.2 Officer 3.1.3 Warrant Officer 3.2 Uniforms 3.2.1 Battledress 3.2.2 Utility uniform 3.2.3 Mess Dress 3.2.4 Full dress uniform 3.3 Personnel in each service 3.4 Personnel deployed 3.4.1 Overseas 3.4.2 Within the United States 4 Budget Comparison 5 Notes 6 See also 7 External links

Capabilities

Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States. — President George W. Bush, National Security Strategy, Chapter IX, September 2002.

The United States military is unique in the amount of power it can project globally. Although France and the United Kingdom are capable of projecting limited amounts of power overseas, the United States military is the only military capable of fighting a major regional war at a distance from its homeland. The U.S. is also one of the few nations in the world that has a sizable nuclear arsenal and maintains active doctrines for plausible nuclear attack operations.

As such, much of the U.S. military capabilities are tied up in logistics and transportation, which allow rapid buildup of forces as needed. The Air Force maintains a large fleet of C-5 Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster, and C-130 Hercules transportation aircraft. The Marine Corps maintains Marine Expeditionary Units at sea with the Navy's Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. The Navy's fleet of 12 aircraft carriers, combined with a military doctrine of power projection, enable a flexible response to potential threats.

The United States Army is not as portable as the Marine Corps, but Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker announced a reorganization of the Army's active-duty units into 48 brigade groups with an emphasis on power projection. There will be three classes of brigade group: light, medium, and heavy, with a different mix of armored and infantry units. In reorganizing the Army, however, battalions will still be affiliated with traditional regiments and brigades will still be affiliated with traditional divisions. Reorganized brigades have begun operation in Iraq in the third quarter of 2005.

Organization

Under the United States Constitution, the President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. To coordinate military action with diplomatic action, the President has an advisory National Security Council.

Under the President is the United States Secretary of Defense, a Cabinet Secretary responsible for the Department of Defense.

Both the President and Secretary are advised by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In accordance with the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 (which fundamentally changed the organization of the Department) the 4 Service Chiefs together with the Chairman and Vice Chairman form the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Joint Chiefs serve only in an advisory and administrative capacity, with operational control flowing from the President and Secretary of Defense directly to the Commanders of the Unified Combatant Commands (see Goldwater-Nichols Act). Each service is responsible for providing military units to the commanders of the various Unified Commands.

National Command organizational chart

                  -------------------President--------------
                  |           |              |             |
                  |           |              |             |
                  |         SECDEF ----------|             |
                  |           |              |             |
                  |           |         Chairman JCOS     NSC
                  |           |              | 
                  |           |              | 
               Regional Combatant            JCOS
               Commander or Commanders      
               (functional command)
                        |
                        |
                        |
              Army, Navy, Air Force,
             Marine Corps commanding 
                      officer

Joint Chiefs of Staff

The 4 Service Chiefs together with the Chairman and Vice Chairman form the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff	Gen. Peter Pace (USMC)
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff	Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani (USN)
Chief of Staff of the United States Army	Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker (USA)
Chief of Naval Operations	Adm. Michael G. Mullen (USN)
Commandant of the Marine Corps	Gen. Michael W. Hagee (USMC)
Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force	Gen. T. Michael Moseley (USAF)

Unified Combatant Commands

There are 9 Unified Combatant Commands- 5 geographic and 4 functional.

Command	Commander	Home Base	Area of Responsibility
United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM)	Admiral Timothy J. Keating (USN)	Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado	North American homeland defense and coordinating homeland security with civilian forces.
United States Central Command (CENTCOM),	General John Abizaid (USA)	Macdill Air Force Base, Florida	The Horn of Africa through the Persian Gulf region, into Central Asia.
United States European Command (EUCOM)	General James L. Jones (USMC) (also Supreme Allied Commander Europe(SACEUR))	SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe), Belgium	Europe and African and Middle Eastern nations not covered by CENTCOM.
U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM)	Admiral William J. Fallon (USN)	Honolulu, Hawaii	The Asia-Pacific region including Hawaii.
U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)	General Bantz J. Craddock (USA)	Miami, Florida	South, Central America and the surrounding waters

The 5 Geographic Commands
Image:Unified Command map s.jpg

U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM)	General Bryan D. Brown (USA)	MacDill Air Force Base, Florida	Provides special operations for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM)	General Lance L. Smith (USAF) (also Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT))	Norfolk, Virginia	Supports other commands as a joint force provider.
United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM)	General James E. Cartwright (USMC)	Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska	Covers the strategic deterrent force and coordinates the use of space assets.
U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM)	General Norton A. Schwartz (USAF)	Scott Air Force Base, Illinois	Covers global mobility of all military assets for all regional commands.

Personnel

Recruitment

As in most militaries, members of the U.S. armed forces hold ranks and can be promoted, and subscribes to the Officer/Enlisted distinction.

Enlisted

After enlistment new recruits undergo Basic Training, followed by Advanced Individual Training in their primary Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) at any of the numerous MOS training facilities around the world. Initially recruits without higher education, or college degrees will hold the pay grade of E-1, and will be elevated to E-2 following Basic Training or soon thereafter. Different services have different incentive programs for enlistees, such as higher initial ranks for college credit and referring friends who go on to enlist as well. Enlistees in the Army can even attain the initial pay grade of E-4 with a full four year degree, but generally the highest initial grade is E-3.

Officer

There are four common ways for one to receive a commission as an officer in one of the branches of the U.S. military (although other routes are possible).

• Reserve Officer Training School (ROTC)
• Officer Candidate School (OCS)
• Military Academy
• Direct Commission - Lawyers, doctors, nurses, veterinarians, and chaplains may be directly commissioned into their respective corps. There also are opportunities in the Reserves and National Guard for those who have significant professional civilian experience in a related field, and time in service. They do, however, go through a brief school for military customs, courtesies and traditions.
• Battlefield Commission - Enlisted personnel that have skills that seperate them from their peers can become officers if an overseeing general\commander sees such a promotion as fit. This type of commissioning is rarely done and is reserved only for the most exceptional enlisted personnel.

Officers receive a commission assigning them to the Officer Corps from the President (with the consent of the Senate).

Through their careers, officers usually will receive further training at one or a number of the many U.S. military staff colleges.

Warrant Officer

Additionally, all services except for the U.S. Air Force have a Warrant Officer corps. Above the rank of Chief Warrant Officer Two, these officers are also commissioned officers, but usually serve in a more technical and specialized role within units. More recently though they can also serve in more traditional leadership roles associated with the more recognizable officer corps. With one notable exception, these officers ordinarily have already been in the military often serving in senior NCO positions in the field in which they later serve as a Warrant Officer as a technical expert. The exception to the NCO rule is helicopter pilots in the U.S. Army, although most Army pilots have indeed served some enlisted time, it is also possible to enlist, complete basic training, go directly to the Warrant Officer Candidate school at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and then on to flight school.

Uniforms

Battledress

Battle dress uniform Army Combat Uniform

Utility uniform

Utility uniform

Mess Dress

Mess dress

Full dress uniform

Dress uniform

Personnel in each service

As of the middle of 2004

Service	Total Active Duty Personnel	Percentage Female	Enlisted	Officers
Army	500,203	15.2%	414,325	69,307
Marine Corps	176,202	6.0%	157,150	19,052
Navy	375,521	14.5%	319,929	55,592
Air Force	358,612	19.6%	285,520	73,091
Coast Guard	40,151	10.7%	31,286	7,835

Personnel deployed

Main article: Deployments of the U.S. Military

Overseas

The United States has military personnel deployed in numerous countries around the world, with numbers ranging from merely a handful to tens of thousands. Some of the largest contingents are:

Germany	75,603
South Korea (United States Forces Korea)	40,258
Japan (United States Forces Japan)	40,045
Italy	13,354
United Kingdom	11,801

Within the United States

Including territories and ships afloat within territorial waters

A total of 1,168,195 personnel are within the United States including:

Continental U.S.	1,168,195
Hawaii	35,810
Alaska	17,989
Afloat	120,666

Budget Comparison

Image:WorldMilitarySpending.jpg

Main article U.S. military budget

The military expenditure of the Department of Defense for 2004 was:

Total	$437.111 Billion
Operations and maintenance	$174.081 Bil.
Military Personnel	$113.576 Bil.
Procurement	$76.217 Bil.
Research & Development	$60.756 Bil.
Military Construction	$6.310 Bil.

The United States military budget is larger than the military budgets of the next twenty biggest spenders combined, and six times larger than China's, which places second (it should be noted that it is widely believed that China understates its actual military expenditures). Dollar for dollar, the United States and its closest allies are responsible for approximately two-thirds of all military spending on Earth (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for two-thirds). Military spending accounts for more than half of the United States' federal discretionary spending, which comprises all of the U.S. government's money not accounted for by pre-existing obligations [2].

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2003 the United States spent approximately 47% of the world's total military spending of US$956,000,000,000.

See also: China's military budget

Notes

• ^  The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. Title 14, United States Code, Section 1, states "The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times." In peacetime it is part of the Department of Homeland Security, but in wartime falls under the operational command of the United States Navy. Coast Guard units, or ships of its predecessor service, the Revenue Cutter Service, have seen combat in every war of the United States since 1790, including the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

• Both the Coast Guard and the Air Force have volunteer civilian auxiliaries: the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary (Coast Guard) and the Civil Air Patrol (Air Force).

• The Posse Comitatus Act restricts the armed forces from interfering with civilian affairs, with the exception of the Coast Guard.

• Since they are "uniformed services," The NOAA Corps and The Public Health Service Commissioned Corps may be considered branches of the armed forces, but its members are considered non-combatants.

• Persons 17 years old, with parental permission, can join the U.S. armed services.

See also

• Military history of the United States
  • List of military actions by or within the United States
• List of U.S. military books
• U.S. military historical joint commands
• United States military academies
• U.S. military staff colleges

External links

• United States Order of Battle
• kamouflage.net > U.S. Military camouflage patterns
• Global Security on U.S. Military Operations
• Today's Military website

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