Profile of the U.S. Army 2008

Profile of the U.S. Army 2008

June 08, 2008

There is no such thing anymore as “typical warfare.” Since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks the methods by which wars are fought have changed dramatically. No longer does the United States fight a specific, uniformed enemy with a known structure or base of operations. There is no primary target to hit, no headquarters to attack, no open battlefields on which to fight head-to-head. To face these new challenges and achieve victory, the U.S. Army has had to adapt its structure to this new type of warfare. The Army is no longer based on an organization of static divisions. Its current composition is agile and dynamic, based on smaller units with more organic components and the ability to easily adapt to ever-changing combative situations. At the center of this Modular Force is the Soldier, armed with the best weapons, protection and technology available to ensure the Army’s success now and in the future.Profile of the U.S. Army—a reference handbook is published by the Association of the United States Army’s Institute of Land Warfare to describe and define the Army as it is organized today. It is intended to be a userfriendly reference book for people familiar with the Army and an easy-to-read introduction for family members, civilian employees, contractors and future Soldiers.This Profile takes a top-down approach, first describing the Army’s role as a key element in the national security structure and then flowing into the “why” and “how” of the Army’s organization. Profile also contains information and helpful graphics on the Soldier, the uniform, the Army’s command structure, Army families, installations and the Army’s current operations. For readers wishing to seek more details, each chapter includes a list of relevant websites. Finally, Profile contains a glossary of acronyms and maps illustrating locations of current Army combat corps and divisions, current Army National Guard divisions and brigade combat teams, and projected Army Reserve direct reporting commands.In addition, Profile will be available on the AUSA website (http://www.ausa.org/ilw). A comprehensive weapons directory containing detailed information about Army weapon systems, published by AUSA’s ARMY Magazine, is also available on AUSA’s website (http://www.ausa.org/webpub/DeptGreenBook.nsf/byid/ WEBP-77GMRR). The directory describes all of the Army’s weapon systems including aircraft, artillery, tanks, individual equipment and state-of-the-art technologies used by Soldiers in the warfight.Profile of the U.S. Army is your guide. We welcome your comments and suggestions on how to make future editions as useful to you as possible. The goal of the Association of the United States Army and the Institute of Land Warfare in publishing this book is to give you a greater understanding and appreciation of the men, women, families, institutions, organizations and constitutional authority that go into creating the world’s greatest army.