The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the

• United States Army
• United States Navy
• United States Air Force
• United States Marine Corps
• United States Coast Guard^{[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/pac/United_States_armed_forces#fn_CoastGuard)}

The combined United States armed forces consists of 1.4 million active duty personnel along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and National Guard. There is currently no conscription.

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. Unlike certain other countries, the United States officer corps is not restricted by society class, education, 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.)

Capabilities

Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equalling, 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. military 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. Although, it is the standing policy of the United States military to never strike an opponent first with nuclear weapons, but rather as retaliation to similar attacks. The most recent approach to this doctrine was during the Gulf War when the United States military threatened a nuclear strike on Iraq should the Iraqi military deploy chemical and biological weapons against U.S. troops.

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.

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 fundamentaly changed the organisation of the Department) the 4 Service Chiefs together with the Chairman and Vice Chairman form the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

However operational control flows from the President and Secretary of Defense 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
                              |              | 
                  |           |              | 
                              |             JCOS
                  |           |
                              |
                  |           |
 Regional Combatant Commander or Commander (specific command, e.g. STRATCOM)
                              |
                              |
                Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine 
                Responsible commanding General

Unified Combatant Commands

There are 9 Unified Combatant Commands- 5 geographic and 4 functional. (Listed with their Commander, Home Base, and Area of Responsibility.)

• United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM)
  • General Ralph E. Eberhart (USAF) (also North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) commander
  • Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
  • North America and the surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles. NORTHCOM provides homeland defense and coordinates homeland security with civilian forces. NORTHCOM was formed in 2001 in response to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. Before 2001, the US and Canada were not part of any military command, with the exception of Alaska, which was formerly under Alaskan Air Command, and is currently jointly part of Alaskan Command.
• United States Central Command (CENTCOM),
  • General John Abizaid (US Army)
  • Macdill Air Force Base, Florida
  • Covers the area from the Horn of Africa through the Persian Gulf region, into Central Asia.
• U.S. European Command (EUCOM)
  • General James L. Jones (USMC) (also Supreme Allied Commander Europe(SACEUR))
  • Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany
  • Covers Europe and African and Middle Eastern nations not covered by CENTCOM.
• U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM)
  • Admiral Thomas B. Fargo (USN)
  • Honolulu, Hawaii
  • Covers the Asia-Pacific region including Hawaii.
• U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)
  • General James T. Hill (US Army)
  • Miami, Florida
  • Covers South, Central America and the surrounding waters

The 5 Geographic Commands

• U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM)
  • General Bryan D. Brown (USArmy)
  • MacDill Air Force Base, Florida
  • Provides special operations for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
• U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM)
  • Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani (USN) (also Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT))
  • Supports other commands as a joint force provider. JFCOM originated as United States Atlantic Command, but its regional responsiblities have been split between NORTHCOM and EUCOM.
• United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM)
  • Admiral James O. Ellis Jr. (USN)
  • Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska
  • Covers the strategic deterrent force (ICBMs and other nuclear weapons) of the United States. It commands all of these forces, whether air (missiles and bombers), ground (artillery), or naval (nuclear strike submarines-SSBNs), regardless of location. With the merger of SPACECOM and STRATCOM in 2002, STRATCOM now also coordinates the use of space assets for support, intelligence, and command and control; this includes aerial refueling and airborne, satellite and computer network communications.
• U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM)
  • General John W. Handy (USAF)
  • Scott Air Force Base, Illinois
  • Covers global mobility of all military assets for all regional commands.

Personel

Personel in each service

As of the middle of 2004

Personel deployed

As of April,2004

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

Deployed withing the United States
including territories and ships afloat withing territorial waters

A total of 1,168,195 personel are within the United States including some deployements in:

Budget

see main article US military budget

Military expenditures for the Department of Defense in 2004 was $437.111 billion.

Notes

1. Note: 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 becomes part of the Department of Defense. Coast Guard units have seen combat in every war of the United States, including the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

External links

• United States Order of Battle (http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/9059/usaob.html)
• kamouflage.net: online index of camouflage uniforms from around the world (http://www.kamouflage.net/)
  • kamouflage.net > North America > United States of America > index (http://www.kamouflage.net/camouflage/00181/en_index.php)