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Defense Superior Service Medal

Defense Superior Service Medal

The Defense Superior Service Medal of the United States is a senior decoration of the Department of Defense. It is awarded to members of the United States military who perform "superior meritorious service in a position of significant responsibility". The decoration is most often presented to senior officers in the flag and general officer grades. The medal is presented in the name of the Secretary of Defense and was first created in 1976. The first recipient of the Defense Superior Service Medal was Brigadier General John G. Jones, United States Army, for service as the Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense from February of 1972 to July of 1975. 1975 See also: Awards and decorations of the United States military Category:Awards and decorations of the United States military

Department of Defense

:Note: DOD redirects here. For other uses, please see DOD (disambiguation) The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated as DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. The Department of Defense controls the U.S. military and is headquartered at The Pentagon. It is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is currently Donald Rumsfeld.

History

Proposals to coordinate the activities of the military services were initially considered by U.S. Congress in 1944. Specific plans were put forth in 1945 by the Army, the Navy, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In a special message to U.S. Congress on December 19, 1945, President Harry Truman proposed creation of a unified Department of National Defense, which came under the Department of Transportation. A proposal reached Congress in April 1946, but was held up by the Naval Affairs Committee held hearings in July 1946 due to objections to the concentration of power in a single department. Truman eventually sent new legislation to Congress in February 1947, where it was debated and amended for several months. On July 26, 1947, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, which set up the National Military Establishment to begin operations on September 18, 1947, the day after the confirmation of James V. Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense. The Establishment had the unfortunate abbreviation 'NME' (the obvious pronunciation being "enemy"), and was renamed the "Department of Defense" on August 10, 1949; in addition, the secretary was given greater authority over the military departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The Department of Defense is based in The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia outside Washington, DC, across the Potomac River. It was created by combining the War Department (founded in 1789) with the Navy Department (founded in 1798; formerly the Board of Admiralty, founded in 1780), and the newly created Department of the Air Force. The department was formed in order to reduce interservice rivalry which was believed to have reduced military effectiveness during World War II. It includes the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, as well as non-combat agencies such as the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency. In wartime, the Department of Defense also has authority over the Coast Guard; in peacetime, that agency is under the control of the Department of Homeland Security. Prior to the creation of DHS, the Coast Guard was under the control of the Department of Transportation. The Coast Guard has not been formally militarized since World War II, although it has participated in various military and law enforcement operations over the years. The DoD's annual budget is roughly $425 billion (~$1,600 per capita), which does not include tens of billions more in supplemental expenditures allotted by Congress throughout the year. The command structure of the Department of Defense is defined by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. Under the act, the chain of command runs from the President of the United States, through the Secretary of Defense, to the regional commanders within one of several commands who command all military forces within their area of operation. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the several Chiefs of Staff are responsible for readiness of the U.S. military and serve as the President's military advisers, but are not in the chain of command. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States. On February 22, 2002, the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General has reported that DOD has not and will not account for $1.1 trillion of "undocumentable adjustments." In addition, there have been several high-profile Government Accountability Office investigations of the Department of Defense. As part of the September 11, 2001 attacks, terrorists crashed a plane into one of the sections of The Pentagon, causing part of it to collapse, killing 189 people.

Organization

- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee
- Office of Net Assessment
- Office of Inspector General
- Defense Criminal Investigative Service
- Military Departments
- Department of the Army including the U.S. Army
- Department of the Navy including the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps
- Department of the Air Force including the U.S. Air Force
- Joint Chiefs of Staff
- United States Naval Observatory
- Unified Combatant Commands
- Central Command (CENTCOM)
- European Command (EUCOM)
- Joint Forces Command (JFCOM)
- Northern Command (NORTHCOM)
- Pacific Command (PACOM)
- Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)
- Special Operations Command (SOCOM)
- Strategic Command (STRATCOM)
- Transportation Command (TRANSCOM)
- Defense Agencies
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Defense Commissary Agency
- Defense Contract Audit Agency
- Defense Contract Management Agency
- Defense Finance and Accounting Service
- Defense Information Systems Agency
- Defense Intelligence Agency
- Defense Legal Services Agency
- Defense Logistics Agency
- Defense Security Cooperation Agency
- Defense Security Service
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- Missile Defense Agency
- National Security Agency
- National Reconnaissance Office
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- Pentagon Force Protection Agency
- Department of Defense Field Activities
- American Forces Information Service
- Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office
- Department of Defense Education Activity
- Department of Defense Dependents Schools
- DoD Human Resources Activity
- Office of Economic Adjustment
- Tricare Management Activity
- Washington Headquarters Services In 2003, the National Communications System was moved to the United States Department of Homeland Security. United States Department of Homeland Security

Related legislation

- 1947 - National Security Act of 1947
- 1958 - Department of Defense Reorganization Act PL 85-899
- 1963 - Department of Defense Appropriations Act PL 88-149
- 1963 - Military Construction Authorization Act PL 88-174
- 1967 - Supplemental Defense Appropriations Act PL 90-8
- 1984 - Department of Defense Authorization Act PL 98-525
- 1986 - Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 or Department of Defense Reorganization Act PL 99-433
- 1996 - Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act PL 104-132

External links

- [http://www.defenselink.mil/ United States Department of Defense website]
- Defense ko:미국 국방부 ja:アメリカ国防総省

United States/Military

United States armed forces
Military manpower
Military age	18 years of age
Availability	males & females ages 18-49: 134,813,023 (2005 est.)
Reaching military age annually	males & females: 4,180,074 (2005 est.)
Active troops	1,427,000 (Ranked 2nd)
Military expenditures
Dollar figure	$400 billion (FY2005 est.)
Percent of GDP	3.7% (FY2005 est.)

The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the
- United States Army
- United States Marine Corps
- United States Navy
- United States Air Force
- United States Coast Guard Approximately 1.4 million personnel are currently on active duty in the military with an additional 860,000 personnel in the seven reserve components (456,000 of which are in the Army and Air National Guard). There is currently no conscription. The armed forces are also members of the United States Uniformed Services. The United States Armed Forces is the most powerful military in the world and their power projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other singular nation (e.g. People's Republic of China, Russia, India) or organization (e.g. the European Union). The United States Department of Defense is the controlling organization for the U.S. military and is headquartered at The Pentagon. The Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military is the President of the United States. The United States military is a hierarchical military organization, with a system of military ranks to denote levels of authority within the organization. The military service is divided into a professional officer corps along with a greater number of enlisted personnel who perform day-to-day military operations. The United States officer corps is not restricted by social class or nobility, but is by college education. United States military officers are appointed from a variety of sources, including the service academies, ROTC, and direct appointment from both civilian status and the enlisted ranks. The U.S. military also maintains a number of military awards and badges to denote the qualifications and accomplishments of military personnel. On July 26, 1948 U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 which racially desegregated the military of the United States. Homosexuals, however, are still barred from serving openly (see Don't ask, don't tell.) By law, women may not be put into direct combat; however, asymmetrical warfare has put women into situations which are direct combat operations in all but name. (Approximately 9% of Army positions available; see [http://www.goarmy.com/JobDetail.do?id=47] as an example).
Don't ask, don't tell

Capabilities

:Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States. — President George W. Bush, National Security Strategy, Chapter IX, September 2002. The United States military is unique in the amount of power it can project globally. Although France and the United Kingdom are capable of projecting limited amounts of power overseas, the United States military is the only military capable of fighting a major regional war at a distance from its homeland. The U.S. is also one of the few nations in the world that has a sizable nuclear arsenal and maintains active doctrines for plausible nuclear attack operations. As such, much of the U.S. military capabilities are tied up in logistics and transportation, which allow rapid buildup of forces as needed. The Air Force maintains a large fleet of C-5 Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster, and C-130 Hercules transportation aircraft. The Marine Corps maintains Marine Expeditionary Units at sea with the Navy's Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. The Navy's fleet of 12 aircraft carriers, combined with a military doctrine of power projection, enable a flexible response to potential threats. The United States Army is not as portable as the Marine Corps, but Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker announced a reorganization of the Army's active-duty units into 48 brigade groups with an emphasis on power projection. There will be three classes of brigade group: light, medium, and heavy, with a different mix of armored and infantry units. In reorganizing the Army, however, battalions will still be affiliated with traditional regiments and brigades will still be affiliated with traditional divisions. Reorganized brigades have begun operation in Iraq in the third quarter of 2005.

Organization

Under the United States Constitution, the President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. To coordinate military action with diplomatic action, the President has an advisory National Security Council. Under the President is the United States Secretary of Defense, a Cabinet Secretary responsible for the Department of Defense. Both the President and Secretary are advised by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In accordance with the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 (which fundamentally changed the organization of the Department) the 4 Service Chiefs together with the Chairman and Vice Chairman form the Joint Chiefs of Staff. However operational control flows from the President and Secretary of Defense to the Commanders of the Unified Combatant Commands. (see Goldwater-Nichols Act) Each service is responsible for providing military units to the commanders of the various Unified Commands.

National Command organizational chart

-------------------President-------------- | | | | | | | | | SECDEF ----------| | | | | | | | Chairman JCOS NSC | | | | | | Regional Combatant JCOS Commander or Commanders (functional command) | | | Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps commanding officer

Joint Chiefs of Staff

The 4 Service Chiefs together with the Chairman and Vice Chairman form the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Unified Combatant Commands

There are 9 Unified Combatant Commands- 5 geographic and 4 functional.

The 5 Geographic Commands
image:Unified Command map s.jpg

Personnel

Recruitment

As in most militaries, members of the U.S. armed forces hold ranks and can be promoted, and subscribes to the Officer/Enlisted distinction.

Enlisted

After enlistment new recruits undergo Basic Training, followed by Advanced Individual Training in their primary Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) at any of the numerous MOS training facilities around the world. Initially recruits without higher education, or college degrees will hold the pay grade of E-1, and will be elevated to E-2 following Basic Training or soon thereafter. Different services have different incentive programs for enlistees, such as higher initial ranks for college credit and referring friends who go on to enlist as well. Enlistees in the Army can even attain the initial pay grade of E-4 with a full four year degree, but generally the highest initial grade is E-3.

Officer

There are four common ways for one to receive a commission as an officer in one of the branches of the U.S. military (although other routes are possible).
- Reserve Officer Training School (ROTC)
- Officer Candidate School (OCS)
- Military Academy
- Direct Commission - Lawyers, doctors, nurses, veterinarians, and chaplains may be directly commissioned into their respective corps. There also are opportunities in the Reserves and National Guard for those who have significant professional civilian experience in a related field, and time in service. They do, however, go through a brief school for military customs, courtesies and tradtions. Officers receive a commission assigning them to the Officer Corps from the President. Through their careers, officers usually will receive further training at one or a number of the many U.S. military staff colleges.

Warrant Officer

Additionally, all services except for the U.S. Air Force have a Warrant Officer corps. Above the rank of Chief Warrant Officer Two, these officers are also commissioned officers, but usually serve in a more technical and specialized role within units. More recently though they can also serve in more traditional leadership roles associated with the more recognizable officer corps. With one notable exception, these officers ordinarily have already been in the military often serving in senior NCO positions in the field in which they later serve as a Warrant Officer as a technical expert. The exception to the NCO rule is helicopter pilots in the U.S. Army, although most Army pilots have indeed served some enlisted time, it is also possible to enlist, complete basic training, go directly to the Warrant Officer Candidate school at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and then on to flight school.

Uniforms

Battledress

Battle dress uniform

Utility uniform

Mess Dress

Mess dress

Full dress uniform

Dress uniform

Personnel in each service

As of the middle of 2004

Personnel deployed

Main article: Deployments of the U.S. Military

Overseas

The United States has military personnel deployed in numerous countries around the world, with numbers ranging from merely a handful to tens of thousands. Some of the largest contingents are:

Within the United States

Including territories and ships afloat within territorial waters A total of 1,168,195 personnel are within the United States including some deployments in:

Budget Comparison

Deployments of the U.S. Military Main article U.S. military budget The military expenditure of the Department of Defense for 2004 was: The United States military budget is larger than the military budgets of the next twenty biggest spenders combined, and six times larger than China's, which places second (it should be noted that it is widely believed that China greatly understates its actual military expenditures). Dollar for dollar, the United States and its closest allies are responsible for approximately two-thirds of all military spending on Earth (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for two-thirds). Military spending accounts for more than half of the United States' federal discretionary spending, which comprises all of the U.S. government's money not accounted for by pre-existing obligations [http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp]. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2003 the United States spent approximately 47% of the world's total military spending of US$956,000,000,000. :See also: China's military budget
Notes

- The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. Title 14, United States Code, Section 1, states "The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times." In peacetime it is part of the Department of Homeland Security, but in wartime falls under the operational command of the United States Navy. Coast Guard units, or ships of its predecessor service, the Revenue Cutter Service, have seen combat in every war of the United States since 1790, including the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
- Both the Coast Guard and the Air Force have volunteer civilian auxiliaries: the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary (Coast Guard) and the Civil Air Patrol (Air Force).
- The Posse Comitatus Act restricts the armed forces from interfering with civilian affairs, with the exception of the Coast Guard.
- The NOAA and The Public Health Service Commissioned Corps are branches of the military, but it's members are considered as non-combatants.
See also

- Military history of the United States
- List of military actions by or within the United States
- List of U.S. military books
- U.S. military historical joint commands
- United States military academies
- U.S. military staff colleges
External links

- [http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/9059/usaob.html United States Order of Battle]
- [http://www.kamouflage.net/camouflage/00181/en_index.php kamouflage.net > U.S. Military camouflage patterns]
- [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/index.html Global Security on U.S. Military Operations]
- [http://www.todaysmilitary.com Today's Military website]
- ko:미국의 군사 ja:アメリカ軍

1976

1976 (MCMLXXVI) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-February

- January 12 - UN Security Council votes 11-1 to admit the Palestinian Liberation Organization
- January 15 - Would-be Gerald Ford presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life in prison
- January 16 - Trial against jailed members of the Red Army Faction begins in Stuttgart, West Germany
- January 18 - The Scottish Labour Party is formed
- January 21 - The first commercial Concorde flight takes off.
- January 25 - 12 PIRA bombs explode in London's East End
- January 27 - The trial of SLA member Patty Hearst begins. She is found guilty of robbery on March 20
- February 4 - In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
- February 4 - 1976 Winter Olympics open in Innsbruck, Austria
- February 11 - Clifford Alexander Jr is confirmed as 1st African-American Secretary of US Army.
- February 20 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands
- February 24 - Cuba's current constitution enacted.
- February 27 - Western Sahara declares independence
- February 28 - Spain gives up territories in Sahara but retains its enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta

March

- March 1 - Merlyn Rees ends Special Category Status for those sentenced for crimes relating to the civil violence in Northern Ireland
- March 3 - Fleetwood Mac records Rumours, which will be a blockbuster album in 1977
- March 9-March 11 - Two coal mine explosions claim 26 lives at the Blue Diamond Coal Co. Scotia Mine, Letcher County, Ky
- March 17 - Rubin "Hurricane" Carter is retried
- March 18 - Harold Wilson resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- March 19 - Actor Nicholas Downs born in Des Moines, Iowa at 6:45am
- March 20 - Patty Hearst is found guilty of armed robbery of a San Francisco bank
- March 24 - Argentina military forces depose president Isabel Peron
- March 27 - The first 4.6 miles of the Washington, DC subway system opens
- March 29 - Military junta of general Jorge Videla comes to power in Argentina
- March 31 - New Jersey Supreme Court rules that coma patient Karen Ann Quinlan could be disconnected from her respirator. She remains comatose and dies in 1985

April-May

- April 1 - Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
- April 4 - Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest
- April 5 - Jim Callaghan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- April 5 - Large crowds lay wreaths at Beijing's Monument of the Martyrs in commemoration of the death of Premier Zhou Enlai. Poems against the Gang of Four are also displayed. This was followed by a police crackdown and became known as the Tiananmen Incident.
- April 13 - An explosion in an ammunition factory in Lapua, Finland kills 40
- April 16 - In India the minimum age for marriage is raised to 21 years for men and 18 years for women; it is to curb population growth
- April 21 - Great Bookie Robbery in Melbourne. Bandits steal A$1.4 Million in bookmakers settlements in Queen Street, Melbourne
- April 23 - Powerful punk rock group The Ramones release their first album which starts a new form of music
- April 25 - Portugal's new constitution enacted
- May 4 - Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 revolutionizes world of wine.
- May 9 - Ulrike Meinhof of RAF is found hanging in an apparent suicide in her cell in Stuttgart-Stannheim prison
- May 11 - President Gerald Ford signs Federal Election Campaign Act.
- May 24 - Washington, DC Concorde service begins

June

- June 1 - UK and Iceland end the Cod War
- June 5 - Teton Dam collapses in southeast Idaho in the U.S., killing 11 people.
- June 14 - the trial begins at Oxford Crown Court of Donald Neilson, the killer known as the Black Panther.
- June 16 - Soweto riots in South Africa mark the beginning of the end of apartheid
- June 20 - Hundreds of Western tourists are moved from Beirut and taken to safety in Syria by the US military, following the murder of the US ambassador.
- June 20 - Czechoslovakia beat West Germany 5-3 on penalties to win Euro 76, after the game had ended 2-2 after extra time.
- June 27 - Palestinian extremists hijack an Air France plane in Greece with 246 passengers and 12 crew. They take it to Entebbe, Uganda, where Israeli commandos storms it on July 4
- Sismik incident starts when the Turkish survey ship Sismik entered Greek waters.

July

- July 2 - North Vietnam and South Vietnam united to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam - a Communist country
- July 3 - Supreme Court of the United States rules on Gregg v. Georgia and decides that death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment
- July 3 - The great heat wave in the United Kingdom, which is currently suffering from drought conditions, reaches its peak.
- July 4 - United States Bicentennial
- July 4 - Israeli airborne commandos free 103 hostages being held by Palestinian hijackers of an Air France plane at Uganda's Entebbe Airport; one Israeli and several Ugandan soldiers are killed in raid.
- July 7 - German left-wing terrorists Monika Berberich, Gabriella Rollnick, Juliane Plambeck and Inge Viett escape from Lehrterstrasse maximum security prison in West Berlin
- July 10 - Explosion in Seveso, Italy, kills a large number of people
- July 16-July 20 - Albert Spaggiari and his gang break into the vault of the Societe Generale Bank in Nice, France
- July 17 - The 1976 Summer Olympics begin in Montreal, Canada.
- July 17 - East Timor is declared the 27th province of Indonesia
- July 19 - Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.
- July 20 - Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars
- July 21 - A bomb kills Christopher Ewart, British ambassador to the Irish Republic
- July 27 - United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Uganda
- July 28 - Tangshan earthquake flattens Tangshan,China, killing 242,769 people, and 164,851 people are heavily injured
- July 29 - In New York City, the "Son of Sam" pulls a gun from a paper bag killing one and seriously wounding another in the first of a series of attacks that terrorized the city for the next year.
- July 30 - In Santiago, capital of Chile, Cruzeiro from Brazil wins River Plate from Argentina and are the Copa Libertadores de América champions.
- July 31 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1

August

- August 1 - the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago becomes a republic, replacing Queen Elizabeth II with an elected president as their Head of State.
- August 2 - A gunman murders Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr, and injures Priscilla Davis and Gus Gavrel in an incident at Priscilla's Mansion at Mockingbird Lane in Fort Worth, Texas. T. Cullen Davis, Priscilla's husband and one of the richest men in Texas, was tried and found innocent for Andrea's murder. He was later found innocent of a plot to kill several people, including Priscilla and a judge, and a wrongful death lawsuit. Cullen went broke afterwards
- August 4 - First outbreak of Legionnaire's disease kills 29 at the American Legion convention in Philadelphia
- August 5 - Racing Champion Niki Lauda suffers serious burns in the German Grand prix; the Great Clock of Westminster (or Big Ben) suffers internal damage and stops running for over nine months
- August 6 - Former UK Postmaster General John Stonehouse is sentenced for seven years for fraud
- August 7 - Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars
- August 14 - 10,000 Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland
- August 14 - The Senegalese political party PAI-Rénovation is legally recognized. PAI-Rénovation thus becomes the third legal party in the country.
- August 18 - In North Korea at Panmunjom, two US soldiers are killed while trying to chop down part of a tree in the Demilitarized Zone which had obscured their view
- August 24 - Uruguayan army captures Marcelo Gelman and his pregnant wife. Marcelo is later killed and his wife and child disappears

September-October

- September 3 - Viking program: The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars takes the first close-up, color photos of the planet's surface
- September 6 - Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido in Japan and requests political asylum from the United States
- Military Junta in power in Argentina.
- September 17 - Space Shuttle Enterprise rolled out.
- September 21 - Seychelles joins the United Nations.
- September 21 - Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C. by agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
- October - The Damned release New Rose - the first ever single released / marketed as "punk rock".
- October 6 - Cubana Flight 455 crashes due to a bomb placed by anti-Castrist militants, after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4535661.stm]
- October 6 - Students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand to protest the return of ex-dictator Thanom are massacred by a coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces, triggering the return of the military to government.
- October 12 - The People's Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of Communist Party of China
- October 19 - Copyright Act of 1976 extends copyright duration for an additional 20 years in the United States
- October 22 - Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, fifth President of Ireland, resigns after being publicly insulted by the Minister for Defence.
- October 25 - Full pardon given to Clarence Norris, last known survivor of the Scottsboro Boys.

November-December

- November 2 - U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Rudolph Ford to become first candidate from deep south to win since the Civil War.
- November 15 - First Megamouth Shark is discovered off Oahu in Hawaii
- November 26 - Little known company Microsoft is officially registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.
- December 1 - Angola joins the United Nations
- December 3 - Patrick Hillery is elected unopposed as the sixth President of Ireland.
- December 15 - Samoa joins the United Nations
- December 23 - New volcano, Murara, began erupting in eastern Zaire.

Unknown dates

- Christopher Maier, American murder victim born, died 1997
- First laser printer introduced by IBM - the IBM 3800
- Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, invented by Seymour Cray
- California's sodomy law repealed.
- The term memetics first proposed by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene.
- Toronto Blue Jays created
- CN Tower built in Toronto - The tallest free standing land structure.
- Diffie-Hellman cryptography proposed
- Plans to move the Nigerian capital from Lagos to Abuja are approved.
- Ebola is first discovered in Zaire
- Women For Sobriety established.

Births

January-March

- January 2 - Paz Vega, Spanish actress
- January 7 - Éric Gagné, Canadian Major League Baseball player
- January 7 - Alfonso Soriano, Dominican Major League Baseball player
- January 11 - Amanda Peet, American actress (born really 1972?)
- January 20 - Gretha Smit, Dutch speed skater
- January 21 - Emma Bunton, English musician (Spice Girls)
- January 28 - Mark Madsen, American basketball player
- January 31 - Buddy Rice, American race car driver
- February 2 - James Hickman, British swimmer
- February 4 - Cam'ron, Harlem, New York rapper
- February 9 - Vladimir Guerrero, Dominican Major League Baseball player
- February 10 - Lance Berkman, baseball player
- February 12 - Silvia Saint, Czech actress
- February 15 - Brandon Boyd, American musician (Incubus)
- February 20 - Ed Graham, British drummer (The Darkness)
- February 28 - Ja Rule, American rapper
- March 5 - Sarunas Jasikevicius, Lithuanian basketball player
- March 8 - Freddie Prinze Jr., American actor
- March 20 - Chester Bennington, American musician (Linkin Park)
- March 22 - Teun de Nooijer, Dutch field hockey player
- March 22 - Reese Witherspoon, American actress
- March 23 - Keri Russell, American actress
- March 24 - Aaron Brooks, American football player
- March 24 - Peyton Manning, American football player
- March 25 - Juvenile, American rapper
- March 26 - Amy Smart, American actress

April-June

- April 6 - Candace Cameron, American actress
- April 13 - Jonathan Brandis, American actor (d. 2003)
- April 18 - Melissa Joan Hart, American actress
- April 25 - Tim Duncan, West Indian basketball player
- April 25 - Rainer Schuettler, German tennis player
- May 3 - Beto, Portuguese footballer
- May 4 - Jason Michaels, baseball player
- May 15 - Tyler Walker, baseball player
- May 19 - Kevin Garnett, American basketball player
- May 20 - Ramón Hernández, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- May 25 - Miguel Tejada, Dominican Major League Baseball player
- May 31 - Colin Farrell, Irish actor
- June 8 - Lindsay Davenport, American tennis player
- June 10 - Freddy Garcia, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- June 13 - Jason 'J' Brown, English musician (5ive)
- June 23 - Brandon Stokley, American football player

July-September

- July 1 - Patrick Kluivert, Dutch footballer
- July 1 - Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dutch footballer
- July 3 - Andrea Barber, American actress
- July 2 - Gabriel Mughadam, Bodybuilder
- July 4 - Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer
- July 8 - Ellen MacArthur, English yachtswoman
- July 9 - Shelton Benjamin, American professional wrestler
- July 9 - Fred Savage, American actor
- July 11 - Eduardo Najera, Mexican basketball player
- July 20 - Alex Yoong, Malaysian race car driver
- July 23 - Judit Polgar, Hungarian chess player
- July 31 - Annie Parisse, American actress
- August 6 - Melissa George, Australian actress
- August 9 - Jessica Capshaw, American actress
- August 9 - Rhona Mitra, English actress
- August 8 - JC Chasez, American singer
- August 12 - Antoine Walker, American basketball player
- August 14 - Alex Albrecht, American television personality
- August 15 - Boudewijn Zenden, Dutch football player
- August 27 - Carlos Moyà, Spanish tennis player
- August 27 - Mark Webber, Australian race car driver
- September 7 - Stevie Case (Killcreek), American video game celebrity
- September 7 - Shannon Elizabeth, American actress
- September 8 - Abi Titmuss, British TV presenter and model
- September 8 - Sjeng Schalken, Dutch tennis player
- September 10 - Gustavo Kuerten, Brazilian tennis player
- September 16 - Tina Barrett, English singer (S Club 7)
- September 22 - Ronaldo, Brazilian footballer
- September 25 - Chauncey Billups, American basketball player
- September 26 - Michael Ballack, German footballer
- September 29 - Andriy Shevchenko, Ukrainian footballer

October-December

- October 1 - Blu Cantrell, American rapper
- October 4 - Alicia Silverstone, American actress
- October 10 - Bob Burnquist, Brazilian skateboarder
- October 19 - Michael Young, baseball player
- October 23 - Ryan Reynolds, Canadian actor
- November 6 - Pat Tillman, American football player (d. 2004)
- November 7 - Mark Philippoussis, Australian tennis player
- November 19 - Jun Shibata, Japanese singer and songwriter
- November 24 - Chen Lu, Chinese figure skater
- November 29 - Anna Faris, American actress
- December 1 - Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (d. 1998)
- December 12 - Dan Hawkins, British guitarist (The Darkness)
- December 13 - Tom Delonge, American musician (Blink-182)
- December 15 - Baichung Bhutia, Indian footballer
- December 17 - Takeo Spikes, American football player
- December 18 - Koyuki, Japanese actress and model

Deaths

January-March

- January 8 - Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China (b. 1898)
- January 10 - Howlin' Wolf, American musician (b. 1910)
- January 12 - Agatha Christie, English writer (b. 1890)
- January 23 - Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, writer, and activist (b. 1898)
- January 30 - Mance Lipscomb, American singer (b. 1895)
- February 1 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
- February 1 - George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1878)
- February 2 - Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Bulgarian painter (b. 1903)
- February 6 - Vince Guaraldi, American musician (b. 1928)
- February 9 - Percy Faith, Canadian-born musician and composer (b. 1908)
- February 11 - Lee J Cobb, American actor (b. 1911)
- February 11 - Alexander Lippisch, German aerodynamicist (b. 1894)
- February 11 - Charlie Naughton, Scottish actor (b. 1886)
- February 12 - Sal Mineo, American actor (b. 1939)
- February 13 - Lily Pons, American soprano (b. 1898)
- February 20 - René Cassin, French judge, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1887)
- February 22 - Florence Ballard, American singer (The Supremes) (b. 1943)
- March 6 - Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, American boxer and actor (b. 1903)
- March 7 - Wright Patman, American politician (b. 1893)
- March 14 - Busby Berkeley, American choreographer and director (b. 1895)
- March 17 - Luchino Visconti, Italian theatre and film director (b. 1906)
- March 19 - Paul Kossoff, British guitarist (Free) (b. 1950)
- March 24 - Bernard Montgomery, British field marshal (b. 1897)

April-June

- April 1 - Max Ernst, German artist (b. 1891)
- April 5 - Howard Hughes, American aviation pioneer, film director, and eccentric (b. 1905)
- April 9 - Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer, pianist, one of The Nordstrom Sisters (b. 1903)
- April 18 - Henrik Dam, Dutch biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1895)
- April 26 - Sid James, South African actor (b. 1913)
- May 9 - Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author (b. 1920)
- May 9 - Ulrike Meinhof, German terrorist (b. 1934)
- May 11 - Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (b. 1898)
- May 14 - Keith Relf, British musician (The Yardbirds) (b. 1943)
- May 26 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (b. 1889)
- May 27 - Hilde Hildebrand, German actress, (b. 1897)
- May 31 - Jacques Monod, French biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1910)
- June 10 - Adolph Zukor, Hungarian-born film producer (b. 1893)
- June 15 - Jimmy Dykes, baseball player and manager (b. 1896)
- June 25 - Johnny Mercer, American songwriter (b. 1909)
- June 30 - Firpo Marberry, baseball player (b. 1898)

July-September

- July 1 - Zhang Mintian, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1900)
- July 4 - Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and writer (b. 1895)
- July 13 - Joachim Peiper, German military leader (b. 1915)
- August 6 - Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (b. 1903)
- August 22 - Juscelino Kubitschek, President of Brazil (b. 1902)
- August 25 - Eyvind Johnson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
- August 26 - Lotte Lehmann, German soprano (b. 1888)
- August 27 - Mukesh, Indian singer (b. 1923)
- September 2 - Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish writer (b. 1934)
- September 9 - Mao Zedong, Chinese leader (b. 1893)
- September 26 - Lavoslav Ružička, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)

October-December

- October 5 - Lars Onsager, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- October 11 - Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author (b. 1897)
- November 12 - Walter Piston, American composer (b. 1894)
- December 2 - Danny Murtaugh, baseball player and manager (b. 1917)
- December 4 - Benjamin Britten, English composer (b. 1913)
- December 6 - João Goulart, President of Brazil (b. 1918)
- December 28 - Katharine Byron, U.S. Congresswoman (b. 1903)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Burton Richter, Samuel Chao Chung Ting
- Chemistry - William Nunn Lipscomb, Jr
- Physiology or Medicine - Baruch S. Blumberg, D Carleton Gajdusek
- Literature - Saul Bellow
- Peace - Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan
- Economics - Milton Friedman

Templeton Prize

- Cardinal Suenens Category:1976 ko:1976년 ja:1976年 simple:1976 th:พ.ศ. 2519

United States Army

The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces that has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. As of fiscal year 2004 (FY04), it consisted of 485,500 soldiers (including 71,400 women) on active duty and 591,000 in reserve (325,000 in the Army National Guard (ARNG) and 246,000 in the United States Army Reserve (USAR)). The Continental Army was formed on June 14, 1775, before the establishment of the United States, to meet the demands of the American Revolutionary War. Congress created the United States Army on June 3, 1784 after the end of the American Revolutionary War, to replace the disbanded Continental Army.

Components of the U.S. Army

1784 Between 1775 and August 7, 1789, the established Federal Army was the Continental Army. On the latter date, the Continental Army was replaced by the United States Army under the newly-established War Department. The structure of the US Army was constitutionally established as the Regular Army, the units of the State Militias when called to federal service, and units of Volunteers that were established for the duration of the emergency. This remained the normal scheme of things until the Civil War, when the first Conscription took place. The concept of the National Army as a Conscript Army was thus established in all but name, since units were established to accommodate the use of the conscripts in combat. The last time that the Volunteer Units were utilized was the Spanish-American War in 1898. From that time forward, the Regular Army, the State Militias, and the National Army were codified as standard. In 1908, the Organized Reserve Corps was established to provide trained Officers and Enlisted Men for immediate use in time of war. During the First World War, the "National Army" was organized to fight the conflict. It was demobilized at the end of World War I, and was replaced by the Regular Army, the Organized Reserve Corps, and the State Militias. In the 1920s and 1930s, the "career" soldiers were known as the "Regular Army" with the "Enlisted Reserve Corps" and "Officer Reserve Corps" augmented to fill vacancies when needed. In 1941, the "Army of the United States" was founded to fight the Second World War. The Regular Army, Army of the United States, the National Guard, and Officer/Enlisted Reserve Corps (ORC and ERC) existed simultaneously. After World War II, the ORC and ERC were combined into the United States Army Reserve. The Army of the United States was re-established for the Korean War and Vietnam War and was demobilized upon the suspension of the draft. Currently, the Army is divided into the Regular Army, the Army Reserve, and the United States National Guard. Prior to the 21st century, members of the National Guard were considered state Soldiers unless federalized by the Army. Currently, all National Guard members hold dual status: as National Guardsmen under the authority of the State Adjutant General, and as National Guardsmen under the authority of the Army Human Resources Command. Until such time as National Guardsmen retire from National Guard service, they are never considered members of the Army Reserve, but become members of the US Army Retired Reserve upon retirement, and remain in such status until their 60th Birthday, when they become full-fleged Retirees with a status equal to Regular Army Retirees. Various State Defense Forces also exist, sometimes known as State Militias, which are sponsored by individual state governments and serve as an auxiliary to the National Guard. Except in times of extreme national emergency, such as a mainland invasion of the United States, State Militias are operated independently from the U.S. Army and are seen as state government agencies rather than a component of the military. By design, the use of the Army Reserve and National Guard has increased since the Vietnam War. Reserve and Guard units took part in the Gulf War, peacekeeping in Kosovo, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. With recent manpower shortages in the military, some U.S. citizens have been concerned regarding a reinstitution of the draft (conscription) force. Federal and state lawmakers, however, have asserted that no such action is being planned. Although the present-day Army exists as an all volunteer force, augmented by Reserve and National Guard forces, measures exist for emergency expansion in the event of a catastrophic occurrence, such as a large scale attack against the US or the outbreak of a major global war. The current "call-up" order of the United States Army is as follows: major global war # Regular Army volunteer force # Army Reserve total mobilization # Full scale activation of all National Guard forces # Recall of all retired personnel fit for military duty # Re-establishment of the draft and creation of a conscript force within the Regular Army # Recall of previously discharged officers and enlisted who were separated under honorable conditions # Activation of the State Defense Forces/State Militias # Full scale mobilization of the unorganized U.S. militia The final stage of Army mobilization, known as "activation of the unorganized militia" would effectively place all able bodied males in the service of the U.S. Army. The last time an approximation of this occurred was during the American Civil War when the Confederate States of America activated the "Home Guard" in 1865, drafting all males, regardless of age or health, into the Confederate Army. A similar event, albeit in a foreign country, occurred during World War II when Nazi Germany activated the Volkssturm in April and May of 1945.

Structure of the U.S. Army

Officially, a member of the U.S. Army is called a Soldier (always capitalized). The U.S. Army is divided into the following components, from largest to smallest: Soldier, Smith, Weyland, Nugent;
front row: Simpson, Patton, Spaatz, Eisenhower, Bradley, Hodges, Gerow.]] Gerow :#Field Army Field Army: Usually commanded by a General (GEN; note that abbreviations of military rank within the U.S. Army are given in all capital letters without a period or other punctuation). :#Corps: Consists of two or more divisions and organic support brigades. The commander is most often a Lieutenant General (LTG). :#Division: Usually commanded by a Major General (MG). :#Brigade (or group): Composed of typically three or more battalions, and commanded by a Colonel (COL) or Brigadier General (BG). (See Regiment for combat arms units.) :#Battalion (or squadron): A Battalion usually consists of two to six companies and roughly 300 to 1000 soldiers. Most units are organized into battalions. Cavalry units are formed into squadrons. A battalion-sized unit is commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel (LTC), supported by a Command Sergeant Major/E-9 (CSM). This unit consists of a Battalion Commander (CO, LTC), a Battalion Executive Officer (XO,MAJ), a Command Sergeant Major (CSM) and headquarters, 3-5 Company Commanders (CPT), 3-5 Company Executive Officers (1LT), 3-5 First Sergeants (1SG) and headquarters, 6 or more Platoon Leaders (2LT/1LT), 6 or more Platoon sergeants (SFC),and 12 or more Squad Leaders (any NCO). :#Company (or battery/troop): A company usually consists of three to four platoons and roughly 100 to 130 soldiers. Artillery units are formed into batteries. Cavalry units are formed into troops. A company-sized unit is usually led by a Company Commander usually the rank of Captain/O-3 (CPT) supported by a First Sergeant/E-8 (1SG). This unit consists of a Company Commander (CO, CPT), a Company Executive Officer (XO,1LT), A First Sergeant(1SG) and a headquarters, Two or more Platoon Leaders (2LT/1LT), two or more Platoon Sergeants (SFC), and four or more Squad Leaders (any NCO). :#Platoon: Usually led by a lieutenant supported by a Sergeant First Class/E-7 (SFC). This unit consists of a Platoon Leader (2LT/1LT), a Platoon Sergeant (SFC), and two or more Squad Leaders (any NCO). :#Section (military unit): Usually directed by Staff Sergeants/E-6 (SSG) who supply guidance for junior NCO Squad leaders. Often used in conjunction with platoons at the company level. :#Squad: Squad leaders are often Staff Sergeants/E-6 (SSG), Sergeants/E-5 (SGT), or Corporals/E-4 (CPL). This unit consists of eight to ten Soldiers. :#Fire team: Usually consists of four Soldiers: a fire team leader, a grenadier, and two riflemen. Fire team leaders are often Corporals/E-4 (CPL).

Organization

The Army is organized by function. Combat Arms include Infantry, Armor, Field Artillery, Air Defense Artillery, Combat Engineers, Army Aviation, and Special Forces. Combat Support Arms include Signal Corps, Intelligence Corps, Chemical Corps, and Military Police Corps. Combat Service Support troops include the Judge Advocate General's Corps, Adjutant General's Corps, Finance Corps, Transportation Corps, Quartermaster Corps, Ordnance Corps, Medical Corps, Medical Service Corps, and Nurse Corps.

Named Campaigns

Revolutionary War

Nurse Corps #Lexington, 19 April 1775. Opening hostilities of the Revolutionary War occurred at Lexington, Massachusetts and Concord, Massachusetts on 19 April 1775, when a column of British troops that had moved out of Boston to seize rebel military stores at Concord was assailed by Minute Men and militia. The Massachusetts militia immediately placed the British in Boston under siege. #Ticonderoga, 10 May 1775. At the same time as Lexington, steps were taken to send an expedition against British-held Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, a strategic post well-supplied with artillery and military stores much needed by the American forces investing Boston. Early on 10 May a New England force of some 80 men led by Cols. Ethan Allen of Vermont and Benedict Arnold of Connecticut surprised the British garrison of about 40 men, which surrendered without a fight. Following this success, Allen seized Crown Point, New York on 12 May and Arnold temporarily occupied St. John, Quebec, a fort across the Canadian border, on 16 May. Subsequently, a large part of the 100 cannon and substantial military stores captured at Ticonderoga were laboriously hauled overland to Boston under the direction of Maj. Gen. Henry Knox, of Washington's artillery, to supply the army besieging the city. #Boston, 17 June 1775 - 17 March 1776. On the night of 16 - 17 June 1775 about 1,200 men of the Colonial force besieging Boston moved on to the Charlestown isthmus overlooking the city and threw up entrenchments on Breed's Hill. The British garrison reacted promptly to this threat. On 17 June 2,200 troops under Maj. Gen. William Howe were ferried across to the isthmus and stormed the American positions on Breed's Hill. In the ensuing battle, incorrectly named after Bunker Hill which stands nearby, the British drove the Colonials from the isthmus after three assaults, but at a cost of about 1,000 in killed and wounded as compared with American losses of approximately 400 killed and wounded. Some 3,030 patriots took part in the fighting at one time or another. This proved to be the only major engagement of the prolonged siege of Boston. Gen. George Washington took formal command of the besieging army on 3 July 1775 and devoted the next several months to building up the American force and trying to solve its severe logistical difficulties. By March 1776 Washington had an army of 14,000 men. On 4 March he moved suddenly to install artillery on Dorchester Heights and, a short time later, on Nook's Hill, positions that dominated Boston from the south. The British commander, Howe, now recognized the serious difficulty of his position. He evacuated the city by 17 March and on 26 March sailed with about 9,000 men for Halifax, Nova Scotia. #Quebec, 28 August 1775 - July 1776. In June 1775 the Continental Congress, influenced by reports that the British commander in Canada was recruiting a force in preparation for an invasion of New York and by hopes that Canada, largely inhabited by French, might become a fourteenth colony in support of the Revolution, authorized seizure of any vital points in Canada needed to guarantee the security of the colonies. Consequently, a two-pronged invasion of Canada was launched in the early fall of 1775. Col. Benedict Arnold, starting from Cambridge, Massachusetts, with about 1,100 men, went by water and land through the Maine wilderness on an epic march up the Kennebec River and down the Chaudiere River, arriving before Quebec on 8 November with only 650 men. There he had to await the arrival of Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery, who had taken over command of a force of about 2,000 men organized at Fort Ticonderoga by Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler for an advance up the historic Lake Champlain-St. Lawrence River route. Beginning on 17 September, Montgomery laid siege to the British fort at St. Johns, which fell on 2 November, opening up the way to American occupation of Montreal on 13 November. Finally, Montgomery joined Arnold near Quebec on 3 December, but with only 300 men, the rest of his force staying behind to garrison St. Johns and Montreal, Quebec. With enlistments of most of the volunteer troops expiring at the end of the year' the two commanders decided to undertake a desperate night attack on Quebec on 30-31 December 1775. A composite British garrison repelled the assault, killing or wounding about 100 Americans and taking over 400 prisoners. Montgomery was among those killed. In spite of these severe losses, the Americans continued to besiege the city until the spring of 1776, when the reinforced British garrison drove the Colonials, who had already begun a retreat, back to the head of Lake Champlain. #Charleston, 28-29 June 1776 and 29 March-12 May 1780. The two engagements at Charleston, South Carolina, are reflected on a single streamer. The first campaign blunted the British threat in the southern theater for three years, and the second, while a defeat for the Americans, did not result in a cessation of hostilities in the south. Guerrillas began to harry British posts and lines of communications, and the American grass roots strength began once again to assert itself and to deny the British the fruits of military victory won in the field. #Long Island, 26-29 August 1776. After the British evacuation of Boston, Washington immediately moved his army, less the militia, to New York, in anticipation of a British invasion of that strategically important city. During July and August 1776, General Howe, supported by a British fleet under his brother, Adm. Lord Richard Howe, landed an army of 32,000 British and Hessian regulars unopposed on Staten Island. But by late August Washington had assembled a force of over 20,000 virtually untrained Continentals and militia, and built a system of defenses on and around Manhattan Island. About half of these Colonial troops were disposed in fortifications on Brooklyn Heights and forward positions at the western end of Long Island under command of Maj. Gen. Israel Putnam. From 22 - 25 August General Howe landed about 20,000 men on Long Island and, in the evening of the 26th, directed a wide flanking movement around the American left, commanded by Maj. Gen. John Sullivan. On the morning of the 27th Howe fell upon the rear of Sullivan's forces and, despite a valiant defense by the Continentals on the right under Brig. Gen. William Alexander (Lord Stirling), the whole American front crumpled. Remnants of the forward American forces fled back to entrenchments on Brooklyn Heights and two nights later were evacuated to Manhattan in a skillful withdrawal unobserved by the British. Estimates place American losses at 300-400 killed and wounded and 700-1,200 taken prisoners. General Howe listed his losses as 367. #Trenton, 26 December 1776. The British followed up their success on Long Island with a series of landings on Manhattan Island which compelled Washington to retire northward to avoid entrapment. When Fort Washington and Fort Lee on opposing sides of the Hudson above Manhattan were lost in mid-November 1776, Washington retreated across New Jersey with General Howe in close pursuit, escaping finally over the Delaware into Pennsylvania with about 3,000 men. Howe then went into winter quarters in New York City, leaving garrisons at Newport, R. I., and in several New Jersey towns. In December 1776, Washington determined to make a surprise attack on the British garrison in Trenton, a 1,400-man Hessian force, in the hope that a striking victory would lift the badly flagging American morale. Reinforcements had raised Washington's army to about 7,000 and on Christmas night (25-26 December) he ferried about 2,400 men of this force across the ice-choked Delaware River. At 0800 hours they converged on Trenton, New Jersey in two columns, achieving complete surprise. After only an hour and a half of fighting, the Hessians surrendered. Some 400 of the garrison escaped southward to Bordentown, New Jersey, when two other American columns failed to get across the Delaware in time to intercept them. About 30 were killed and 918 captured. American losses were only 4 dead and a like number wounded. #Princeton, 3 January 1777. After the successful coup at Trenton, Washington recrossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania with his Hessian prisoners. But he reoccupied Trenton on 30 - 31 December 1776, and collected there a force of 5,200 men, about half militia. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Charles Cornwallis, British commander in New Jersey, who was in New York at the time of the attack on Trenton, returned gathering troops as he came. He entered Trenton with some 6,000 British regulars on 2 January and faced Washington's forces, which had withdrawn southward behind Assunpink Creek. The Americans were in a most precarious position with their backs to the Delaware. Fortunately, Cornwallis delayed his attack until the following morning. This gave Washington's men an opportunity to steal off quietly by a side road during the night of 2 - 3 January, leaving their campfires burning brightly. They slipped southward and eastward undetected around the enemy's flank and by morning of the 3rd had arrived at Princeton, where they encountered a column of Briti