Grow the U.S. Army, Again

Abstract

The fluctuation of the size of the U.S. Army has varied greatly during the last 75 years, ranging from a high of over 11 million soldiers during World War II to approximately 480,000 just prior to the September 11th attacks. The deciding factor in determining the size of the U.S. Army has always been its ability to meet actual or perceived national threats. On 20 December 2006, President Bush announced that a larger U.S. Army was needed to address the existing "long struggle," The long struggle, more commonly known as the "long war," aptly describes the Global War on Terrorism. Since then, the Department of Defense announced that the U.S. Army will grow by 65,000 to a final end strength of 547,400 active duty troops. This policy change is welcomed but it is insufficient. In this era of surprise and uncertainty, the U.S. Army must grow to the Operation Desert Storm size of 780,000 active duty troops to defeat current and future threats as well as maintain the health of the force.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 18, 2008
Accession Number
ADA506486

Entities

People

  • Travis Trammell

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Active Duty
  • Afghanistan
  • Asymmetric Warfare
  • Cold War
  • Department Of Defense
  • Deployment
  • Lessons Learned
  • Marine Corps
  • Military Budgets
  • National Security
  • Second World War
  • Security
  • Training
  • United States
  • United States Africa Command
  • United States Central Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military Mobilization and Reserve Forces Studies.
  • Strategic Security Studies