100 Fun Facts About US Army

The US Army's birthday, June 14, falls on the same day as which national observance?

Flag Day marks the adoption of the Stars and Stripes on June 14, 1777, two years to the day after the Continental Army was created, so the Army is older than both the flag and the nation.

The Continental Army's commander-in-chief resigned his commission in December 1783 in which Maryland city?

Annapolis was then the national capital, and in its State House the victorious general handed back his commission instead of keeping power, then went home to his farm.

What is the official motto of the United States Army?

This We'll Defend has sat on the Army's seal since 1778, on a scroll held in a rattlesnake's mouth; better-known lines such as 'Be All You Can Be' and 'Army Strong' are only recruiting slogans.

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

Caissons are the ammunition wagons in 'The Caissons Go Rolling Along', written by artillery officer Edmund L. Gruber in 1908; John Philip Sousa turned it into a march in 1917, and the Army adopted it with new words in 1956.

What is the nickname of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, which posts the sentinels at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

The Old Guard is said to have been named by General Winfield Scott in Mexico City in 1847, after its part in his campaign; founded in 1784, it is the oldest active regiment in the Regular Army.

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

Its red numeral shoulder patch, a big red 1, gave the 1st Infantry Division its name; film director Samuel Fuller fought in its ranks and later retold his war in the 1980 movie The Big Red One.

Which nickname belongs to the 101st Airborne Division?

Screaming Eagles comes from the bald eagle on the 101st's insignia: Old Abe, a live mascot that a Wisconsin regiment carried through the Civil War. HBO's Band of Brothers followed the division's Easy Company.

Which division earned the nickname 'All American' in World War I because its soldiers came from all 48 states?

82nd Airborne began in 1917 as an infantry division of draftees from all 48 states, which gave it the nickname and its 'AA' insignia; it only became the Army's first airborne division in 1942.

With which single word of American slang did the 101st's acting commander answer 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 sea cliffs to destroy German guns at which Normandy site?

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?

Florida hosts Ranger School's last phase at Camp Rudder on Eglin Air Force Base, where reptile experts teach students to tell venomous snakes from harmless ones before the swamp patrols; the earlier phases are held in Georgia.

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

John F. Kennedy backed a beret that Fort Bragg's commander had banned in 1956, asking Special Forces to wear it for his 1961 visit; a year later he called it 'a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage'.

Which film follows a Special Forces A-team fighting on horseback in Afghanistan after 9/11?

12 Strong is named for the twelve soldiers of ODA 595, who joined Afghan fighters weeks after the attacks; few of them were practised riders, but horses were the only transport on offer in the mountains.

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

The British SAS hosted Beckwith as an exchange officer in the early 1960s, and he built Delta on its model in 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 had argued as secretary of state that the Constitution made no provision for a national military academy, yet as president he signed the 1802 act that founded West Point.

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?

The mule became Army's mascot in 1899, when a quartermaster officer decided the team needed an answer to Navy's goat; mules were the obvious pick, having hauled Army gear for generations.

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.

Which general is the only officer to hold the Army's highest rank, General of the Armies, while alive?

John J. Pershing received the rank in 1919 for leading the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI; free to choose his own insignia, he simply went on wearing four stars.

Which Civil War general did a 2020s defense act authorize for posthumous promotion to General of the Armies?

Ulysses S. Grant's supporters first proposed the promotion in a 'Bicentennial Recognition Act', timed for the 200th anniversary of his birth in 2022; the authorization finally passed inside that year's defense bill.

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

Omar Bradley spent World War I guarding copper mines in Montana, yet in the next war he commanded the largest American force ever to serve under one field commander.

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

A gas turbine gives the heavy Abrams its high speed, but the engine is voracious: its thirst for fuel makes keeping the tanks supplied a serious logistics problem.

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

Native American tribes and leaders give Army helicopters such as the Apache and Chinook their names; the Black Hawk honours a Sauk war leader, not a bird, and replaced the Vietnam-era Huey in 1979.

The Army's top enlisted soldier holds which title 'of the Army'?

Sergeant Major of the Army dates only from 1966, when chief of staff Harold K. Johnson wanted an adviser on enlisted soldiers' concerns; he picked William Wooldridge, then serving in Vietnam, from thousands of candidates.

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

Corporal is the lowest NCO rank, yet many soldiers never hold it: specialists share its E-4 pay grade without NCO status and are commonly promoted straight to sergeant.

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

An eagle sits on the Specialist's shield-shaped insignia, which soldiers call the 'sham shield': a joke that specialists, spared an NCO's duties, are experts at shamming, or dodging work.

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

Fort Jackson in South Carolina, named for Andrew Jackson, opened as a World War I camp in 1917 and was shut down in 1922; revived in 1939 for the next war, it has trained soldiers ever since.

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

Fort Knox takes its name from Henry Knox, the first secretary of war; during World War II the gold vault next door also sheltered the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

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 was founded in 1827 as a forward base protecting the Santa Fe Trail; its staff college later schooled Dwight Eisenhower, who graduated first in a class of 245 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.

Oveta Culp Hobby was the first director of which World War II women's service?

WAC stood for Women's Army Corps: it began in 1942 as an auxiliary that was not legally part of the Army, and joined it only the following year, when Hobby became an Army colonel.

Which 1947 law made the Army Air Forces the independent US Air Force?

The National Security Act also created the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and put the Army, Navy and new Air Force under a single secretary of defense.

The Army had about 190,000 soldiers in 1939; roughly how many did it have by 1945?

8 million is roughly the Army's 1945 strength, about forty times the force of 1939; that total still included the Army Air Forces, which left to become a separate service two years later.

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

The Congress lends its name so firmly that the award is often miscalled the 'Congressional Medal of Honor'; the Army's version, created in 1862, carries the head of Minerva.

Which Civil War surgeon is the only woman ever awarded the Medal of Honor?

Mary Edwards Walker earned the medal as a civilian contract surgeon with the Union Army. Her name was struck from the roll in 1917 along with some 900 others and restored in 1977.

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

To Hell and Back is based on Murphy's own best-selling memoir of a war in which he was credited with stopping a German tank attack in January 1945, the stand that earned him the Medal of Honor.

Which Tennessee soldier led the capture of 132 Germans in October 1918?

Alvin York had written 'Don't want to fight' on his draft card and sought conscientious-objector status; the following year he silenced a nest of German machine guns in the Argonne and returned with 132 prisoners.

Which US military decoration bears a profile of George Washington, who created its forerunner in 1782?

Purple Heart medals revive Washington's Badge of Military Merit, a heart of purple cloth worn on the chest; the award was reborn in 1932 for the bicentennial of his birth and now goes to troops wounded or killed by enemy action.

Which bugle call was first sounded for Union general Daniel Butterfield at Harrison's Landing in 1862?

Taps began in July 1862 when Butterfield revised an older call and had his bugler, Oliver Norton, sound it for lights-out; buglers across the Union Army soon took it up.

Which World War I mascot dog is said to have caught a German spy by the seat of his pants?

Stubby, later nicknamed Sergeant Stubby, spent 18 months and 17 battles with the 102nd Infantry, warning his regiment of gas attacks and finding the wounded; his preserved body is displayed at the Smithsonian.

Before 'G.I.' meant a soldier, Army paperwork used it for which item made of galvanized iron?

Trash cans of galvanized iron were entered in Army paperwork as 'G.I.'; soldiers later took the letters to mean 'government issue', applied them to all their kit and finally to themselves.

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

Meal, Ready-to-Eat pouches replaced canned rations in 1981, and troops soon dubbed them 'Meals Rejected by Everyone'; a water-activated flameless heater was added in the 1990s so they could be eaten hot.

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

Let us try is the English for Essayons; many of the Continental Army's first engineers were French officers, among them chief engineer Louis Duportail, which is thought to be why the motto is French.

The National Guard dates its birth to 1636, when which New England colony organized its militia into three regiments?

Massachusetts Bay ordered its militia companies into three regiments on December 13, 1636, the date the Guard keeps as its birthday; that makes it 139 years older than the Army itself.

In the World War II officers' uniform nicknamed 'pinks and greens', which garment were the 'pinks'?

The trousers were a pinkish taupe, worn with a dark olive coat; when the Army revived the look as its everyday uniform, announced in 2018, the blue uniform returned to being formal dress.

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

The parachute demonstration team began in 1959 as 19 Army skydivers gathered by Brigadier General Joseph Stilwell Jr. to enter competitions; its jumpers still compete as well as perform.

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 long?

About 16 months passed between groundbreaking in September 1941 and the opening in January 1943; to spare scarce wartime steel, the building was kept low and sprawling and made of concrete.

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

Norman Schwarzkopf, nicknamed 'Stormin' Norman', led Central Command through Desert Storm; his 'left hook' sent armoured corps sweeping round the Iraqi flank, and the ground offensive was over in 100 hours.

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

George C. Marshall inherited an Army of fewer than 200,000 soldiers on the day war broke out in Europe and, over the next six years, built it into the largest in American history.

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.

In 2022, US Army Alaska was reorganised into which Arctic-focused division?

The 11th Airborne Division was revived in Alaska in June 2022 as the 'Arctic Angels'; its WWII forerunner, the 'Angels', helped free more than 2,000 internees from a prison camp at Los Baños in the Philippines in 1945.

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

The M7, built by Sig Sauer, fires a heavier 6.8 mm round because the Army feared improved body armour would blunt the M4's 5.56 mm bullet; the 101st Airborne began receiving it in 2024.

The M224, a 60 mm weapon carried by rifle companies, is the smallest of the Army's what?

Mortars lob shells in a high arc over cover; the 60 mm M224 can be dropped onto a bipod mount or, when there is no time to set up, fired handheld with a trigger.

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

Operation Just Cause began on December 20, 1989; Noriega took refuge in the Vatican's embassy, where US troops blared rock music at the building for days before he 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's warhead burst close enough to threaten the soldiers who fired it, so crews were told to shoot from behind a slope and keep their heads down.

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.