Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article
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Following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the German army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Both sides then dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France. This line remained essentially unchanged for most of the war.
Between 1915 and 1917 there were several major offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, machine gun nests, barbed wire, and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties on the attackers and counter attacking defenders. As a result, no significant advances were made. In an effort to break the deadlock, this front saw the introduction of new military technology, including poison gas and tanks. But it was only after the adoption of improved tactics that some degree of mobility was restored.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/2
The Imperial Japanese Navy made its attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, was aimed at the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy and its defending Army Air Corps and Marine defensive squadrons.
The attack severely damaged or destroyed twelve American warships, destroyed 188 aircraft, and killed 2,403 American servicemen and 68 civilians. However, the Pacific Fleet's three aircraft carriers were not in port and so were undamaged, as were the base's vital oil tank farms, submarine pens, and machine shops. Using these resources, the United States was able to rebound within a year.
This attack has also been called the "bombing of Pearl Harbor" and the "Battle of Pearl Harbor" but, most commonly, the "attack on Pearl Harbor" or simply "Pearl Harbor".Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/3
USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is an Iowa-class battleship, and is the second ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. She was built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and launched on December 7, 1943.
During her career Wisconsin served in World War II, where she shelled Japanese fortifications at Ulithi and Leyte Gulf. During the Korean War where she shelled North Korean targets in support of UN and South Korean ground operations, after which she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets. She was reactivated and modernized in 1986 as part of the "600-ship Navy" plan, and participated in the 1991 Gulf War. Wisconsin was last decommissioned in September 1991, having earned a total of six battle stars for war service, and a Navy Unit Commendation for service during the 1991 Gulf War.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/4
The Ardennes Offensive, officially named the Battle of the Ardennes and known to the general public as the Battle of the Bulge, started on December 16, 1944. It was supported by subordinate operations known as Hermann, Greif, and Wahrung, by the Germans. The goal of these operations were to split the Allied line in half, capturing Antwerp and then proceeding to encircle and destroy four Allied armies, forcing the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis' favour. The "bulge" refers to the extension of the German lines in this battle, forming a growing salient into Allied controlled territory, seen clearly in maps presented in newspapers of the time.
Although the German objective was ultimately unrealized, the Allies' slow response to the penetration set their own offensive timetable back by months. The offensive was also counter-productive as many experienced units of the German army were left depleted and in a poor state of supply outside the defenses of the Siegfried Line. In numerical terms, the Battle of the Ardennes was the largest land battle in the history of the U.S. Army.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/5
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a two-seat supersonic long-range all-weather fighter-bomber developed for the U.S. Navy by McDonnell Douglas. The Phantom flew in U.S. service from 1960 to 1996; it also served with the armed forces of eleven other nations. As of 2001, more than 1,000 F-4s remained in service around the world.
The F-4 was designed as the first modern fleet defense fighter for the U.S. Navy. By 1963, it was adopted by the U.S. Air Force for the fighter-bomber role. When production ended in 1981, 5,195 Phantom IIs had been built, making it the most numerous American supersonic military aircraft. Innovations in the F-4 included an advanced pulse-doppler radar and extensive use of titanium in the airframe. The F-4 was capable of reaching a top speed of Mach 2.23, and set 16 world records.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/6
The Battle of Midway was a naval battle of the Pacific Theater of World War II. It took place from June 4 to June 7, 1942, only one month after the inconclusive Battle of the Coral Sea, and six months after the Japanese Empire's attack on Pearl Harbor that had led to the entry of the United States into World War II. During the battle, the United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll, and destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers in the process. By putting an end to early-war Japanese expansion, permanently damaging Japan's elite carrier force, and allowing the U.S. Navy to seize the strategic initiative, it represented the turning point in the Pacific War, and is widely seen as the most important naval battle of the war.
The Japanese plan of attack on Midway, which also included a secondary attack against points in the Aleutian Islands by a smaller fleet, was a ploy by the Japanese to lure America's few remaining carriers into a trap and destroy them. Doing so would effectively finish off the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and guarantee Japanese naval supremacy in the Pacific until at least late 1943.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/7
The Iowa class battleships were the biggest, the most powerful, and the last battleships built for the United States Navy. Four were built in the early 1940s for World War II. All were decommissioned, then recommissioned in the 1980s and decommissioned again in the 1990s. Built with cost as no object, "The Iowa class fast-battleships were arguably the ultimate capital ship in the evolution of the battleship." Their true rival, however, was the aircraft carrier, which proved its title as the most important naval vessel during World War II naval battles in the Pacific.
The Iowa-class battleships improved upon the earlier South Dakota class with more powerful engines, longer caliber guns giving greater range and an additional 200 feet of length for improved seakeeping. The Iowas are widely considered to be amongst the most attractive battleships ever built, with a long, narrow, elegant bow and three powerful gun turrets. While excellent sea boats, the ships are quite wet forward due to the long bow, and the narrow forecastle made armoring No. 1 turret difficult. Like all American battleships of her generation, her armament was laid out in two turrets before the superstructure and one after ("2-A-1"), with the 5-inch dual-purpose secondaries (anti-ship and anti-aircraft) flanking the superstructure.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/8
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was one of the largest naval battles in history. It was fought during the Pacific War of World War II, in the seas surrounding the Philippine island of Leyte from 23 October to 26 October 1944 between the Allies and the Empire of Japan, and was an attempt by the Japanese to repel or destroy the Allied forces stationed on Leyte after the preceding Allied invasion in the Battle of Leyte. Instead, the Allied navies inflicted a major defeat on the outnumbered Imperial Japanese Navy which took away Japan's strategic force in the Pacific War. The battle was the last major naval engagement of World War II.
Leyte Gulf also saw the first use of kamikaze aircraft by the Japanese. The Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Australia was hit on 21 October, and organized suicide attacks by the "Special Attack Force" began on 25 October.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/9
The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program is a program administered by the U.S. Navy which studies the military use of marine mammals — principally Bottlenose Dolphins and California Sea Lions — and trains animals to perform tasks such as ship and harbour protection, mine detection and clearance, and equipment recovery. The program is based in San Diego, California, where animals are housed and trained on an ongoing basis. NMMP animal teams have been deployed for use in combat zones, such as during the Vietnam War and the Iraq War.
The program has been dogged by controversy over the treatment of the animals and speculation as to the nature of its mission and training. This has been due at least in part to the secrecy of the program, which was de-classified in the early 1990s. The Navy cites external oversight, including ongoing monitoring, in defence of its animal care standards.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/10
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The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the U.S. military, responsible for providing power projection from the sea, utilizing the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces to global crises. Along with the U.S. Navy, it falls under the United States Department of the Navy.
Originally organized as the Continental Marines in 1775 as naval infantry, the Marine Corps would evolve its mission with changing military doctrine and American foreign policy. Owing to the availability of Marines at sea, the Marine Corps has served in every American conflict. It attained prominence in the 20th century when its theories and practice of amphibious warfare proved prescient, and ultimately formed a cornerstone of the Pacific campaign of World War II.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/12
The Toledo War (1835–1836) was the largely bloodless outcome of a boundary dispute between the U.S. state of Ohio and the adjoining territory of Michigan. The dispute originated from conflicting state and federal legislation, passed between 1787 and 1805, which left Ohio's northern border uncertain. The governments of Ohio and Michigan both claimed sovereignty over a 468 square mile region along the border, now known as the Toledo Strip. When Michigan pressed for statehood in the early 1830s, it sought to include the disputed territory within its boundaries, but Ohio's Congressional delegation was able to halt Michigan's admission to the Union.
Beginning in 1835, both sides passed legislation meant to force the other side's capitulation. Ohio's governor Robert Lucas and Michigan's then 24-year-old "boy governor" Stevens T. Mason raised militias and helped institute criminal penalties for citizens submitting to the other state's authority. Both militias were mobilized and sent to positions on opposite sides of the Maumee River, but there was little interaction between the two sides besides mutual taunting.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/13
The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between Nazi Germany in Western Europe and the invading Allied forces as part of the larger conflict of World War II. Over sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, still remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in then German-occupied France.
The primary Allied formations that saw combat in Normandy came from the United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada. Substantial Free French and Polish forces also participated in the battle after the assault phase, and there were also contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, and Norway.
The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks and naval bombardments, and an early morning amphibious assault on June 6, “D-Day.” The battle for Normandy continued for more than two months, with campaigns to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Allied beachheads, and concluded with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Falaise pocket in late August 1944.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/14
The Convair B-36 was a strategic bomber built by Convair for the United States Air Force, the first to have truly intercontinental range. Unofficially nicknamed the "Peacemaker", the B-36 was the first thermonuclear weapon delivery vehicle, the largest piston aircraft ever to be mass-produced, and the largest warplane of any kind.
The B-36 was the only American aircraft with the range and payload to carry such bombs from airfields on American soil to targets in the USSR, as storing nuclear weapons in foreign countries was diplomatically delicate. The nuclear deterrent the B-36 afforded may have kept the Soviet Army from fighting alongside the North Korean and Chinese armies during the Korean War. Convair touted the B-36 as an "aluminum overcast," a "long rifle" to give SAC a global reach. When General Curtis LeMay headed SAC (1949-57) and turned it into an effective nuclear delivery force, the B-36 formed the heart of his command. Its maximum payload was more than four times that of the B-29, even exceeding that of the B-52.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/15
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States. It is often referred to as the Congressional Medal of Honor because the President presents the award "in the name of the Congress". It is bestowed on a member of the United States armed forces who distinguishes himself or herself "... conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States ..."
The Medal of Honor is one of only two American military awards worn around the neck; the other is the Commander's Degree of the Legion of Merit. Whereas the Medal of Honor is a military award for valor—actions taken during combat operations at risk of one's own life that are above and beyond the call of duty—the Legion of Merit is a merit award.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/16
The F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engined military strike fighter, a multi-role aircraft that can perform close air support, tactical bombing, and air-to-air combat. It is being designed and built by an aerospace industry team led by Lockheed Martin and major partners BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman. Demonstrator aircraft flew in 2000; first flight of production models is expected in late 2006. The JSF evolved from a DARPA program to develop a STOVL Strike Fighter (SSF) for the US Marine Corps. In 1992 the Marines and US Air Force agreed to jointly develop a Common, Lightweight Strike Fighter, based on the SSF.
The primary customers and financial backers are the United States and the United Kingdom. Eight other nations are also funding the aircraft's development and will decide in 2006 whether or not to purchase it. Total program development costs, less procurement, are estimated at over US$40 billion, of which the bulk has been underwritten by the United States.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/17
The First Battle of the Stronghold (January 17, 1873) was the second battle in the Modoc War of 1872–1873. The battle was fought between the United States Army under Lieutenant Colonel Frank Wheaton and a band of the Native American Modoc tribe from Oregon and California, led by Captain Jack. The United States Army was attempting to remove the Modoc from the natural fortress, Captain Jack's Stronghold, in the lava beds on the south shore of Tule Lake in northeastern California, and return them to the Klamath Reservation in Oregon. The Modocs soundly defeated the Army, forcing it to retreat. The Modoc victory was due to their excellent defensive position and tactics, the terrain, and poor visibility.
The Modocs were encamped at a natural fortress of caves and trenches 300 yards wide and 2 miles long in the lava beds, now known as "Captain Jack's Stronghold". The Modoc had also captured about 100 head of cattle that they were using as a food supply. The Army moved units from all across the Department of the Columbia to the south end of Tule Lake, where the units established two encampments, the larger at Van Brimmer's Ranch, about 10 miles west of the Stronghold, and a smaller force at Louis Land's Ranch, 12 miles to the east.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/18
The Battle of Hampton Roads, often called the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack, was a naval battle of the American Civil War, famous for being the first fight between two powered iron-covered warships, or "ironclads", the USS Monitor, an entirely new design, and the CSS Virginia . The principal confrontations took place on March 8 and March 9, 1862 off Sewell's Point, a narrow place near the mouth of Hampton Roads, Virginia.
The naval battle lasted two days. The first day saw the debut of the Virginia and was fought without the Monitor. Havoc was wreaked upon the wooden Union ships and the day ended with the Confederate side at a decided advantage. However, on the second day the Monitor arrived and initiated the famous action known as the duel of the ironclads. Although the battle was inconclusive, it is significant in naval history. Prior to then, nearly all warships were made primarily of wood. After the battle, design of ships and naval warfare changed dramatically, as nations around the world raced to convert their fleets to iron, as ironclads had shown themselves to be clearly superior to wooden ships in their ability to withstand enemy fire.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/19
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USS Missouri (BB-63) ("Mighty Mo" or "Big Mo") is a U.S. Navy battleship, and was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Missouri. Among the Iowa-class battleships, Missouri is the final battleship to be built by the United States, and was the site of the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II. Missouri was ordered on 12 June 1940 and her keel was laid at the New York Navy Yard in the New York City borough of Brooklyn on 6 January 1941.
During her career Missouri saw action in World War II during the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa, and shelled the Japanese home islands of Hokkaidō and Honshū. After World War II she returned to the United States before being called up and dispatched to fight in the Korean War. Upon her return to the United States she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets, better known as the "Mothball Fleet" in 1955. She was reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan, and participated in the 1991 Gulf War.
Missouri was decommissioned a final time on 31 March 1992, having received a total of eleven battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf. She was maintained on the Naval Vessel Register until January 1995, when her name was struck. In 1998 she was donated to the Missouri Memorial Association, and is presently a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/21
The Crawford expedition, also known as the Sandusky expedition and Crawford's Defeat, was a 1782 campaign on the western front of the American Revolutionary War, and one of the final operations of the conflict. Led by Colonel William Crawford, the campaign's goal was to destroy enemy American Indian towns along the Sandusky River in the Ohio Country, with the hope of ending Indian attacks on American settlers. The expedition was one in a long series of raids against enemy settlements which both sides had conducted throughout the war.
Crawford led about 500 volunteer militiamen, mostly from Pennsylvania, deep into American Indian territory, with the intention of surprising the Indians. The Indians and their British allies from Detroit had already learned of the expedition, however, and gathered a force to oppose the Americans. After a day of indecisive fighting near the Sandusky towns, the Americans found themselves surrounded and attempted to retreat. The retreat turned into a rout, but most of the Americans managed to find their way back to Pennsylvania. About 70 Americans were killed; Indian and British losses were minimal.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/22
The Battle of Edson's Ridge took place September 12–14, 1942 and was a land battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Imperial Japanese Army and Allied (mainly United States Marine Corps) ground forces. The battle took place on Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon Islands and was the second of three separate major Japanese ground offensives in the Guadalcanal campaign.
In the battle, U.S. Marines, under the overall command of U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift, repulsed an attack by the Japanese 35th Infantry Brigade, under the command of Japanese Major General Kiyotaki Kawaguchi. The Marines were defending the Lunga perimeter, that guarded Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, which was captured from the Japanese by the Allies in landings on Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942. Kawaguchi's unit was sent to Guadalcanal in response to the Allied landings with the mission of recapturing the airfield and driving the Allied forces from the island. Underestimating the strength of Allied forces on Guadalcanal, which at that time numbered about 12,000 personnel, Kawaguchi's 6,000 soldiers conducted several nighttime frontal assaults on the U.S. defenses. The main Japanese assault occurred on an unnamed ridge south of Henderson Field that was manned by troops from several U.S. Marine Corps units, although primarily troops from the 1st Raider and 1st Parachute Battalions under U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Merritt A. Edson. Although the U.S. Marine Corps defenses were almost overrun, Kawaguchi's attack was defeated with heavy losses for the Japanese attackers.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/23
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 planes, the airplane outperformed both the other entries and the Air Corps' expectations. Although losing the contract due to an accident, the Air Corps was so in favor of the B-17 that they ordered 13 B-17s regardless. Evolving through numerous design stages, from B-17A to G, the Flying Fortress is considered the first truly mass-produced large aircraft. From its pre-war inception, the USAAC touted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a high-flying, long-ranging potent bomber capable of defending itself. With the ability to return home despite extensive battle damage, its durability, especially in belly-landings and ditchings, quickly took on mythical proportions.
The B-17 was primarily involved in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial targets. The United States Eighth Air Force based in England and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy complemented the RAF Bomber Command's night-time area bombing in Operation Pointblank, which helped secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for Operation Overlord. The B-17 also participated, to a lesser extent, in the War in the Pacific.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/24
A "military brat" is a person whose parent(s) served full-time in the armed forces during the person's childhood. In conventional usage, the word "brat" is derogatory; in a military context, however, it is neither a subjective nor a judgmental term. It is a term in which the military community takes pride. Although the term military brat is used in other English speaking countries, only the United States has studied their military brats as an identifiable demographic. This group is shaped by frequent moves, absence of a parent, authoritarian family dynamics, strong patriarchal authority, the threat of parental loss in war, and the militarization of the family unit.
As adults, military brats share many of the same positive and negative traits developed from their mobile childhoods. Having had the opportunity to live around the world, military brats often have a breadth of experiences unmatched by most teenagers. Many are typically highly educated, outgoing, and patriotic. They have been raised in a culture that emphasizes loyalty, honesty, discipline, and responsibility.Portal:Military of the United States/Featured article/25
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The United States Navy is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for conducting naval operations. Its stated mission is "to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas." The U.S. Navy currently operates the largest naval fleet in the world with nearly 500,000 men and women on active duty or in the Navy Reserve, 282 ships in active service, and more than 4,000 aircraft.
The United States Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was disbanded in 1790. The United States Constitution, though, formed the basis for a seaborne military force by giving Congress the power "to provide and maintain a navy." Depredations against American shipping by Barbary Coast corsairs spurred Congress to enact this power in 1794 by passing a naval act ordering the construction and manning of six frigates. The U.S. Navy came into international prominence in the 20th century, especially during World War II. Operating in both the European and Pacific theatres, it was a part of the conflict from the onset of American military involvement — the Attack on Pearl Harbor — to Japan's official surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri. The U.S. Navy had a role in the subsequent Cold War, in which it evolved into a nuclear deterrent and crisis response force while preparing for a possible global war with the Soviet Union.
