America’s Army was founded, June 14, 1775. Under the new Constitution enacted in 1789, it became a military department of the federal government, a hierarchical bureaucratic institution. Many decades later, by the early 1900s, generations of foresighted Army leaders slowly transformed the Army into the modern professional entity of which we are members today.
The first cohort professionalized by today’s standards was the officer corps. It developed a codified body of expert military knowledge in land warfare doctrine, instituted formal programs of career-long military education, and cultivated a unique military culture grounded in the Army ethic of honorable service to the nation. Because of these and other such advancements listed above, bonds of trust between the Army and the American people began to grow.