The History of America’s Wars and Its’ Armed Forces

    Armed Forces have been a part of man’s culture since prehistoric times. Throughout history men have had to defend themselves, their families and their countries with militias, armies and navies. Historically there have been land forces (army), sea forces (navy), and since the creation of aircraft, an air force. The Armed Forces of the United States are organized into 5 major branches: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. Each service has different missions and different kinds of specialists.

    Historically there have been two kinds of military people: career soldiers and temporary volunteers or soldiers conscripted for a war. The “regulars maintain the force structure during peace and the recruits fill out the needs when war comes. Usually, at the end of a war, the recruits go back to civilian life and the armed forces shrink in size.

    The Army foot soldier dates back to prehistoric times and is called an infantryman, carrying a club, a pike, a bow, or a gun. He patrols, attacks or defends on the ground, and usually walks wherever he has to go, carrying a pack of equipment on his back. He often lives in the mud or the dust. Modern medium infantry may have mechanized gun systems and heavy infantry may be equipped with “mortars, machine guns, rocket launchers, grenade launchers and armored vehicles” (Wikipedia). Mechanized infantry are equipped with armored personnel carriers or infantry fighting vehicles (such as a Bradley or Puma). 

    When soldiers started to fight from the back of a horse, the cavalry was born, and continued into World War II. However, starting with World War I armored vehicles entered the picture and tanks began dominating the battlefield and the cavalrymen evolved into tank crews, riding into battle enclosed in a suit of armor. Today, the “cavalry” continues to use tanks and also helicopters to carry them into the battlefield.

    Machines of war that threw large destructive objects (rocks, cannon balls, exploding shells, etc.) started with catapults and trebuchet, but evolved into cannons. Artillerymen have used howitzers, mortars, field guns and rocket launchers, either on land or from ships. 

    A Navy was and is an equally important organization, and the American Continental Congress in 1755, as part of the war these American Colonies were starting with Mother England, authorized both 10 companies of riflemen and a ship with 10 carriage guns and 80 men to fight the British. Marines were a long-standing part of the Navy, being the Naval Infantry and equipped with muskets. It took some time for the Marines to evolve into the specialized assault force it is today, with helicopters and Harrier aircraft.

    The lifeline of all military organizations is the logistics system, which provides the troops with everything they need to live and train or fight, be it weapons, uniforms, food, chewing gum, or mail from home. Actually more people are engaged in support of the combat troops, than there are actual combat troops.

    Starting as early as the Civil War both the North and the South used aircraft in the form of balloons to conduct aerial surveillance. Aircraft became part of the Signal Corps mission when in June 1907 they began working with inflatable balloons on Bedloes Island outside New York City, where the State of Liberty now stands. The Wright Brothers built the Corps' first airplane in 1908. In 1910 seaplanes were developed and operated from ships, either by catapult launch or by being lowered into the sea by crane.  In 1911 the first landing and takeoff from a primitive aircraft carrier was accomplished. Naval aviation was born.

    World War I began in 1914 between European nations, and America became involved in 1917. Trench warfare and mechanized tanks were the way this war was fought. 

   Although submarines were used as early as the American Civil War, the greatly expanded use of both submarines and aircraft made World War II a different kind of beast, with modern repeating rifles, machine guns and mustard gas. The services had to adapt and serve in this new kind of war.

   World War II started in Europe in 1939, with America joining the conflict in 1941, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The war was fought in many countries, and included the efforts of millions of people. Interestingly, only 9% of the soldiers in the U.S. Army actually were involved in actual combat roles during the war. As the war came to its close, the bomber named Enola Gay delivered the first atomic bomb in combat. Special Services expanded to include units including paratroopers, commandos, rangers, UDT, etc.

    But 1945 did not bring peace. Instead it brought the Cold War with nuclear standoff, espionage, bombers on aerial picket duty, and the constant threat of mutual annihilation.  Major changes in force structure, training and operations resulted.

    After a few years without hostilities, the Korean War brought us to another battlefield on foreign soil, introducing for the first time territorial lines we could not cross in pursuit of our enemy, where we couldn’t tell our allies from the enemy, along with growing public unrest in America over the war. 

   Then on to Viet Nam where America began “training” South Vietnamese troops in 1956. America found itself fighting another war in rice paddies and in the jungle, with even greater public opposition developing at home. Force structures, methods and tactics changed in each war. 

   Recently we have had Afghanistan and Gulf Wars 1 and 2 - more foreign wars - in the mountains, in the desert, and now in an urban battlefield with IED’s and car bombs. Again we are fighting in a foreign land, and with each new war, we learn new methods to meet a different kind of threat. With each new war, the American government seems to face ever more extreme opposition, in its own country, to any war fought in a foreign land.

   Where will we go from here? No one knows, but it is certain than as long as there is a country, we will need armed forces to defend it. We have been attacked (9/11) but not invaded. But most assuredly, in the future things will be different – again.

Copyright © 2008 Andy Lipps

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