sorry, for non-nerds: Originally we had the Dept of the Navy and the Dept or War (Army). Navy was around all the time; Army was tiny & marginal except when we had a war. After WWII, in which the Army and Navy famously fought each other almost as much as they fought the axis, they were combined …
Also don’t forget how both Army and Navy were like, “no, we have flying things too” with the invention of the Air Force.
Oh, it's worse the Air Force essentially pulled themselves out of the Army. They used to straight up be the Army's. They weren't created; they were divorced.
Yeah, the Army was *pissed* and spent the next several decades (maybe longer?) with a recruitment problem that they also blamed on the existence of the Air Force. Inter-branch politics/rivalry for the win, lol.
Into the National Military Establishment (Natl Security Act of 1947), but then in 1949 that act was amended, remaming the NME to the Department of Defense and giving the Secretary of Defense significantly more power …
Back when I ran the AFROTC program here, I wrote an exam; the questions added to 99pts. I tossed in a 1pt "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?" question: In what year did the National Security Act of 1947 establish DoD? Most answered 1947 & got the point. One cadet scored a bonus by answering 1949.
Forrestal, as secretary of the Navy, thought this was a terrible idea and fought it tooth and nail to try to maintain the Navy’s independence and budgetary clout, but he did not succeed.
Once he was made the first secretary of defense, however, he advocated for MORE power/authority and a larger staff in order to manage the unruly Navy, which is partly why the 1949 amendment happened.
After the war, the Army drew back down significantly, but with the onset of the Korean/Cold War, the Army grew again and then stayed fairly large even during “peacetime”; for the first time in US history we had a huge standing peacetime Army, and the Dept of Defense became a major political player
SOOOO changing the name to War Dept wouldn’t be “changing it back”, it’s subsuming the Navy and Marines (and Air Force/Space Force) into the Army! This aggression shall not stand! BEAT ARMY n.b. I did Army ROTC so I’m allowed to make fun of them
boooo
Don’t worry, having grown up with Marines I make fun of the Navy, too.
Love a nerdy thread! 👍
Completely off-track I know, but did you get round to watching the first Rambo film?
Haha no I checked Does the Dog Die and apparently it does so no Rambo movie for me unless I can have someone tell me when not to watch
Somewhere in heaven George Marshall is drinking an ever-refilling chalice of Ernest King’s tears.
He made them use the WWII uniforms again, he wants the Department of War name back.....I think we know where all of this is coming from.
And, Army Air Corps during WW II also.
Hegseth has no idea that the Navy exists. Can those guys even do pushups? Do they have an infantry?
#DictatorTrump wants to name it the Wehrmacht anyway
They'll react to it the same way constitutional conservatives reacted to sending troops to suppress US citizens: "Trump's for the white man, so we love him no matter what he does!"