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"Rangers lead the way" was adopted as the Army Rangers slogan during an exchange on Omaha Beach during the Normandy Invasion. General Norman Cota said to Major Max Schneider, "If you're Rangers, lead the way!"

The first documented submersible vehicle used in combat was the Turtle, which was operated with hand controls and foot pedals. The Turtle was used in a failed attempt to sink a British ship that was moored off Governors Island in New York City.

The Union would have had a tough time during the Civil War if it weren't for immigrants, who made up a third of the army, and African-Americans, who were one-tenth of soldiers. In fact, in a quarter of all regiments, the majority was made up of foreigners.

Graduates from Fort Leavenworth's University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies have been trained to play devil's advocates to avoid the pitfalls of groupthink that were happening in the military. Graduates of the program are called Red Teamers.

Until 1947, the Air Force was the Army Air Corps. The National Security Act of 1947 turned it into its own separate branch of the Armed Forces.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the military used motorized blowers to blow zinc cadmium sulfide into the air over large swaths of the United States as part of Operation LAC (Large Area Coverage). The San Francisco Bay area, Saint Louis, parts of Minnesota, and the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia were all sprayed with the substance. Zinc cadmium sulfide was used because it's a fluorescent, and the military was researching potential dispersion of chemical and biological weapons.

The rank of five-star general didn't exist until 1944, and it was only given to five men, including former president Dwight D. Eisenhower. The ranks were retired in 1981, when the last surviving five-star general, Omar Bradley, died.

George Washington chose the Army's service dress colors in 1779. Though the Army has tried many color schemes over the years, in 2010 they went back to Washington's picks.

General Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion pioneered modern guerrilla warfare during the Revolutionary War. He traveled along swamp paths and lead his men in surprise attacks against unsuspecting British troops. Then, they would withdraw just as unexpectedly as they'd popped up.

The measure to create a unified Continental Army, to be led by George Washington, was passed by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1775. So, technically, the United States has had an army for a year longer than it's been a country.