During the American Revolution the first regular US fighting force, the Continental Army, was established. The Continental Army was organized by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, and comprised 22,000 militia troops in Boston as well as an additional 5,000 militiamen in New York. George Washington took command of these colonial troops on July 3 and discovered that the men were accustomed to going home whenever a danger had passed. In January 1776, the Continental Congress responded to Washington’s appeals by establishing a single standing force that was directly raised from all the colonies. They were to serve longer terms and were trained more thoroughly than the militias. This was the beginning of the current army. 

When the American Revolution drew to a close, Washington was asked to give his thoughts on a peacetime military force to which he responded with Sentiments on a Peace Establishment. Washington believed that the states only needed a small regular army to deal with threats. Washington recommended that the state contingents were organized as elements of a national militia so they would all be similarly trained and equipped. Congress ignored this recommendation; on November 2, 1783, the entire army was disbanded aside from “twenty-five privates to guard the stores at Fort Pitt and fifty-five to guard the stores at West Point.” When Washington became president in 1789, there were only 595 men in service in the army. The Constitution written in 1787, placed the military forces under the control of the president as commander in chief. One of Washington’s first tasks was to prepare legislation for a military policy that he previously recommended, this was rejected by Congress in the Militia Act of 1792. Washington persuaded Congress to expand the small regular army to deal with threats. Congress officially established the army under the Constitution of the United States on September 29, 1789.

Today, the Army is one of the largest United States military branches with 700,000 soldiers enlisted. This includes people enlisted for active duty, which means you serve full time and live on a base either in the US or in a foreign country, and Army Reserve, which means you serve part-time and are only required to train and report for duty just one weekend a month and two weeks a year, personnel. The Army Reserve also allows you to live wherever you want, go to school, and work a civilian job. There are many different roles that Army soldiers hold; including doctors, lawyers, engineers, electricians, computer programmers, helicopter pilots, police officers, logistics experts, and civil affairs representatives. While the Army is the oldest military branch, they are still the largest and offer more convenient circumstances for those who are involved.