Happy 250th Birthday to the US Army!
Today, the nation pauses to honor and join the U.S. Army’s 250th Birthday Celebration
Festivities here in the nation’s capital include an Army Birthday Festival on the National Mall, a fireworks display along the Potomac, and, of course, a Grand Military Parade along Constitution Avenue.
The Army birthday celebration kicks off more than a year of similar 250th anniversary commemorations, culminating July 4, 2026 with the United States Semiquincentennial celebrations marking 250 years since America’s declaration of independence.
Today’s military parade is the first of its kind since President George H.W. Bush celebrated America’s victory in the Persian Gulf War with tanks and troops marching down Constitution Avenue in 1991.
Other than attending the parade here in Washington, D.C., there’s no better way to celebrate than reflecting on the Army’s founding 250 years ago.
The United States Continental Army was established on June 14, 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence was signed.
In the preceding years, the thirteen original American colonies endured a series of evermore intrusive and oppressive measures at the hands of the British Parliament. Hostilities erupted April 19,1775 at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, where patriots faced down the redcoats in what became known as the “shot heard round the world.”
The outbreak of open hostilities and ever-increasing resistance to British colonial rule ultimately led to the convening of the Second Continental Congress. This convention on May 10,1775 resolved to create an army that would represent all the British colonies on the North American continent.
A little over a month later, June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress passed a resolution adopting the New England Army of Observation, making it a “continental” Army, under the command of George Washington.
The establishment of the Continental Army was the birth of America’s first national institution.
After declaring our independence a little over a year later, the name of the Army of the United Colonies or the aforementioned “Continental Army” was changed to the Army of the United States— the name we know today.
At the conclusion of the Revolutionary War in 1783, Congress ordered the Continental Army disbanded. Two companies were retained to safeguard arms and stores. On June 3, 1784, Congress voted to form the 1st American regiment and by the fall of 1784, the entirety of the U.S. Army was one regiment, eight infantry and two artillery companies.
Today, the United States Army consists of around 473,000 active-duty personnel in total with 31 Brigade Combat Teams serving around the world.
In his 2025 commencement address at West Point, President Donald Trump stated, “from Lexington to Yorktown, from Gettysburg to Sicily, and from Incheon to Fallujah, America has been won and saved by an unbroken chain of soldiers and patriots who ran to the sound of guns, leapt into the maw of battle, and charged into the crucible of fire to seize the crown of victory—no matter the odds, no matter the cost, no matter the danger.”
For those interested in learning more, the Army’s website is full of information about the 250th anniversary festivities and the history of the U.S. Army.
