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Agency overview | |
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Formed | September 18, 1947 |
Preceding agency | |
Headquarters | The Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia, U.S. |
Annual budget | $180B (FY2020) |
Agency executives | |
Parent agency | U.S. Department of Defense |
Child agency | |
Website | https://www.army.mil/ |
The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Army is the federal government agency within which the United States Army (USA) is organized, and it is led by the secretary of the Army, who has statutory authority under 10 U.S.C. § 3013 to conduct its affairs and to prescribe regulations for its government, subject to the limits of the law, and the directions of the secretary of defense and the president.
The secretary of the army is a civilian official appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The highest-ranking military officer in the department is the chief of staff of the Army, who is also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Other senior officials of the department are the under secretary of the Army (principal deputy to the secretary) and the vice chief of staff of the Army (principal deputy to the chief of staff.)
The Department of War was originally formed in 1789 as an Executive Department of the United States, and was split by the National Security Act of 1947 into the Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force on September 18, 1947. By amendments to the National Security Act of 1947 in 1949, the department of the Army was transformed to its present-day status.
The Department of the Army is a Military Department within the United States Department of Defense. The department is headed by the secretary of the army, who by statute must be a civilian, appointed by the president with the confirmation by the United States Senate. The secretary of the Army is responsible for, and has the authority to conduct all the affairs of the Department of the Army, subject to the authority, direction and control of the secretary of defense. The Department of the Army is divided between its headquarters at the seat of government and the field organizations of the Army.
By direction of the secretary of defense, the secretary of the Army assigns Army forces, apart from those units performing duties enumerated in 10 U.S.C. § 3013 (i.e. organize, train & equip) or unless otherwise directed, to the operational command of the commanders of the Combatant Commands. Only the secretary of defense (and the president) has the authority to approve transfer of forces to and from Combatant Commands. 10 U.S.C. § 162.
Headquarters, Department of the Army is the corporate office of the department which exercises directive and supervisory functions and consists of two separate staffs; the Office of the Secretary of the Army (10 U.S.C. § 3014), the mainly civilian staff; and the Army Staff (10 U.S.C. § 3031 & 10 U.S.C. § 3032), the mainly military staff. The Office of the Secretary and the Army Staff are organized along similar lines, with civilians and military officers both overseeing similar program areas.
Civilian | Military |
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Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs | Deputy Chief of Staff (G1-Personnel) Deputy Chief of Staff (G3/5/7-Operations) |
Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment | Deputy Chief of Staff for Installations, G-9 |
Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works | Chief of Engineers |
Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology | Deputy Chief of Staff (G4-Logistics) |
Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management and Controller | Deputy Chief of Staff (G8-Financial Management) |
General Counsel of the Army | Deputy Chief of Staff (G2-Intelligence) |
The Office of the Secretary is led by the secretary of the Army, assisted by the under secretary of the Army and the administrative assistant to the secretary of the Army, who is the senior civilian career official of the department. The Office of the Secretary of the Army, also known as the Army Secretariat, is divided into multiple branches with functional responsibilities, the six most important of which are headed by one of the five assistant secretaries of the Army or the general counsel of the Army, each of whom are civilians appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The Army Staff is led by the chief of staff of the Army, a four-star general who is the highest-ranking officer in the Army and the Army member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The chief of staff is assisted in managing the Army Staff by the vice chief of staff of the United States Army, a four-star general and second-highest-ranking officer in the Army. The Army Staff is divided into several directorates, each headed by a three-star general.
A key official within the Army Staff is the director of the Army Staff, who is a three-star general. The director is responsible for integrating and synchronizing the work of the Office of the Secretary and the Army Staff so that they meet the goals and priorities of the secretary of the Army. Other key figures within the Army Staff are the sergeant major of the Army, the United States Army judge advocate general, the chief of the Army Reserve, the United States Army provost marshal general, and the United States Army surgeon general. The chief of the National Guard Bureau was previously considered part of the Army Staff, but has been elevated to four-star rank and membership in the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the director of the Army National Guard and the director of the Air National Guard (both three-star positions) report to the chief, National Guard Bureau for strategy and policy, but receive funding and Service-specific guidance from their respective services.[ citation needed ]
Headquarters, United States Department of the Army (HQDA):
Source: U.S. Army organization [12]
The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight uniformed services of the United States as well as to military and political figures of foreign governments.
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution. As the oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States of America was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself to be a continuation of the Continental Army, and thus considers its institutional inception to be the origin of that armed force in 1775.
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States of America. It consists of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and forms military policy with the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), both federal executive departments, acting as the principal organs by which military policy is carried out. All six armed services are among the eight uniformed services of the United States.
The United States National Guard is part of the reserve components of the United States Army and the United States Air Force. It is a military reserve force composed of National Guard military members or units of each state and the territories of Guam, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, for a total of 54 separate organizations. All members of the National Guard of the United States are also members of the Organized Militia of the United States as defined by 10 U.S.C. § 246. National Guard units are under the dual control of the state governments and the federal government.
The secretary of defense (SecDef) is the leader and chief executive officer of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the Armed Forces of the U.S. The secretary of defense's position of command and authority over the U.S. military is second only to that of the president. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a defense minister in many other countries. The secretary of defense is appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, and is by custom a member of the Cabinet and by law a member of the National Security Council.
The secretary of the Navy is a statutory officer and the head of the Department of the Navy, a military department within the United States Department of Defense.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council on military matters. The composition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is defined by statute and consists of a chairman (CJCS), a vice chairman (VJCS), the service chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the chief of the National Guard Bureau. Each of the individual service chiefs, outside their JCS obligations, work directly under the secretaries of their respective military departments, e.g. the secretary of the Army, the secretary of the Navy, and the secretary of the Air Force.
The Secretary of the Army is a senior civilian official within the United States Department of Defense, with statutory responsibility for all matters relating to the United States Army: manpower, personnel, reserve affairs, installations, environmental issues, weapons systems and equipment acquisition, communications and financial management.
The secretary of the Air Force is the head of the Department of the Air Force, a military department within the United States Department of Defense. The secretary of the Air Force is a civilian appointed by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The secretary reports to the secretary of defense and/or the deputy secretary of defense, and is by statute responsible for and has the authority to conduct all the affairs of the Department of the Air Force.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces and is the principal military advisor to the president, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and the secretary of defense. While the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff outranks all other commissioned officers, the chairman is prohibited by law from having operational command authority over the armed forces; however, the chairman does assist the president and the secretary of defense in exercising their command functions.
The Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (VJCS) is, by U.S. law, the second highest-ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, ranking just below the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The vice chairman outranks all respective heads of each service branch, with the exception of the chairman, but does not have operational command authority over their service branches. The Goldwater–Nichols Act of 1986 created the position of vice chairman to assist the chairman in exercising his or her duties. In the absence of the chairman, the vice chairman presides over the meetings of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and performs all other duties prescribed under 10 U.S.C. § 153 and may also perform other duties that the president, the chairman, or the secretary of defense prescribes.
The several branches of the United States Armed Forces are represented by flags. Within the U.S. military, various flags fly on various occasions, and on various ships, bases, camps, and military academies.
The chief of staff of the Army (CSA) is the service chief of the United States Army. As the highest ranking officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Army, the chief is the principal military advisor and a deputy to the secretary of the Army. In a separate capacity, the CSA is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, thereby, a military advisor to the National Security Council, the secretary of defense, and the president of the United States. The CSA is typically the highest-ranking officer on active duty in the U.S. Army unless the chairman or the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are Army officers.
The United States Department of the Air Force (DAF) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Air Force was formed on September 18, 1947, per the National Security Act of 1947 and it includes all elements and units of the United States Air Force (USAF) and the United States Space Force (USSF).
A unified combatant command (CCMD), also referred to as a combatant command, is a joint military command of the United States Department of Defense that is composed of units from two or more service branches of the United States Armed Forces, and conducts broad and continuing missions. There are currently 11 unified combatant commands and each are established as the highest echelons of military commands, in order to provide effective command and control of all U.S. military forces, regardless of branch of service, during peace or during war time. Unified combatant commands are organized either on a geographical basis or on a functional basis such as special operations, power projection, or transport. Currently, seven combatant commands are designated as geographical, and four are designated as functional. Unified combatant commands are "joint" commands and have specific badges denoting their affiliation.
William E. "Kip" Ward is a former United States Army four-star general who served as Commander, United States Africa Command from October 1, 2007 to March 8, 2011. Prior to that, Ward served as Deputy Commander, United States European Command. After he left Africa Command, Ward reverted to his permanent rank of major general and served as a special assistant to the army's Vice Chief of Staff after the Department of Defense concluded he had misused taxpayer money. Ward then retired with the rank of lieutenant general in November 2012.
The United States Department of Defense is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national security and the United States Armed Forces. The DOD is the largest employer in the world, with over 1.3 million active-duty service members as of 2020. More employees include over 826,000 National Guard and reservists from the armed forces, and over 732,000 civilians bringing the total to over 2.8 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., the DoD's stated mission is to provide "the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security".
The structure of the United States Army is complex, and can be interpreted in several different ways: active/reserve, operational/administrative, and branches/functional areas.
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has a complex organizational structure. It includes the Army, Navy, the Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, the Unified combatant commands, U.S. elements of multinational commands, as well as non-combat agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. The DoD's annual budget was roughly US$496.1 billion in 2015. This figure is the base amount and does not include the $64.3 billion spent on "War/Non-War Supplementals". Including those items brings the total to $560.6 billion for 2015.