Regular Army (United States)

These provided a basis for the United States Army's organization, with only minor changes, until the creation of the modern National Guard in 1903.

Appointment of officers actually continued to be a collaboration between Congress, the Commander in Chief, George Washington, and the states.

[8] As the war waned, General Washington sent his plans for a standing army and organized militia to Congress.

[9][10] But due to the inability of Congress to raise much revenue under the Articles of Confederation, suspicion of standing armies, and perceived safety from foreign enemies provided by large oceans effectively controlled by the then non-hostile Royal Navy, Congress disbanded the Continental Army after the Treaty of Paris, the peace treaty with Great Britain, became effective.

Congress retained 80 caretaker soldiers to protect arms and equipment at West Point, New York and Fort Pitt and called on the States to furnish 700 men from their militias for one year of service on the frontier.

[12] On June 3, 1784, the day after the Continental Army was reduced to 80 men, the Congress established a regiment which was to be raised and officered by obtaining volunteers from the militia of four of the states.

[14] The plans, which were supported by U.S. President George Washington and Henry Knox, Secretary of War, would lead to the creation of the Legion of the United States.

The command would be based on the 18th-century military works of Henry Bouquet, a professional Swiss soldier who served as a colonel in the British Army, and French Marshal Maurice de Saxe.

In 1792 Anthony Wayne, a renowned hero of the American Revolutionary War, was encouraged to leave retirement and return to active service as Commander-in-Chief of the Legion with the rank of major general.

The Legion, which was recruited and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was formed around elements of the 1st and 2nd Regiments from the disbanded Continental Army.

The overwhelmingly successful campaign was concluded with the decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794.

Wilkinson, who was later found to be a paid agent for the Spanish Crown, tried to rid the US Army of everything Wayne had created.

In 1821 Congress felt safe enough to cut expenses by disbanding the Rifle Regiment and the 8th Infantry and reducing the size of companies to fifty-one enlisted men, the smallest ever.

However, the Regular Army needed to be increased by 39 men per company plus one infantry regiment and volunteer and militia units had to be used, at least at first, in order to win the Seminole Wars in Florida, which began in December 1835 and lasted until 1842.

Regular Army consisted of two light regiments trained to fight mounted or dismounted and designated as dragoons.

[24] Congress added two new regiments to the Regular Army in 1855 because of the need to protect the large additional territory obtained from Mexico.

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the term Regular Army was used to denote an officer's permanent rank only when a brevet commission had also been received.

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, for instance, was a lieutenant general in the PACS while holding the permanent rank of major of artillery in the ACSA.

Dwight Eisenhower, for instance, spent sixteen years as a major before being promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1936.

After Vietnam, most Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) and Officer Candidate School (OCS) graduates, and those receiving direct commissions were commissioned as RA, US Army Reserve (USAR), or into the Army National Guard of the United States (ARNG).

RA and OTRA officers were those who came on active duty and were expected to serve their full commission service obligation or until retirement.

If not selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel, OTRA majors were required to retire at 20 years unless the Secretary of the Army authorized further service as part of the Voluntary Indefinite (VOLINDEF) program.

Recently, OTRA is rarely used with virtually all new officers being commissioned RA, USAR, or into the National Guard as appropriate.

Since passage of the 2005 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), all active duty officers are commissioned in the Regular Army.

Eligible commissioned officers serving on active duty were automatically converted to RA on/or after Veteran's Day, 11 November 2005.