conflict claudia j. kennedy
Claudia Jean Kennedy ( born July 14 , 1947 ) is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army . She is the first female to reach the rank of three - star general in the U . S . Army . She retired in 2000 after 31 years of military service . The United States Army ( USA ) is the largest branch of the United States Armed Forces and performs land - based military operations . It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution , Article 2 , Section 2 , Clause 1 and United States Code , Title 10 , Subtitle B , Chapter 301 , Section 3001 . As the largest and senior branch of the U . S . military , the modern U . S . Army has its roots in the Continental Army , which was formed ( 14 June 1775 ) to fight the ___MASK9___ ( 1775  1783 ) before the U . S . was established as a country . After the Revolutionary War , the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 , to replace the disbanded Continental Army . The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army , and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775 . The Congress of the Confederation , or the Confederation Congress , formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled , was the governing body of the United States of America that existed from March 1 , 1781 , to March 4 , 1789 . It comprised delegates appointed by the legislatures or assemblies of the several states . It was preceded by the Second Continental Congress ( 1775  1781 ) and governed under the newly adopted " Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union ", which were proposed 1776  1777 , adopted by the Continental Congress in July 1778 and finally agreed to by a unanimous vote of all thirteen states by 1781 , held up by a long dispute over the cession of western territories beyond the Appalachian Mountains to the central government led by Maryland and a coalition of smaller states without western claims . The newly reorganized Congress at the time continued to refer itself as the Continental Congress throughout its eight - year history , although modern historians separate it from the earlier bodies , which operated under slightly different rules and procedures until the later part of ___MASK9___ . The membership of the Second Continental Congress automatically carried over to the Congress of the Confederation when the latter was created by the ratification of the Articles of Confederation . It had the same secretary as the Second Continental Congress , namely Charles Thomson . The Congress of the Confederation was succeeded by the Congress of the United States as provided for in the Constitution of the United States , proposed September 17 , 1787 , in Philadelphia and ratified by the states through 1787 to 1788 and even into 1789 and 1790 . The ___MASK9___ ( 17751783 ), also referred to as the American War of Independence and the Revolutionary War in the United States , was an armed conflict between Great Britain and thirteen of its North American colonies that after onset of the war declared independence as the United States of America . The Continental Army was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the ___MASK9___ by the colonies that became the United States of America . Established by a resolution of the Congress on June 14 , 1775 , it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in their revolt against the rule of Great Britain . The Continental Army was supplemented by local militias and troops that remained under control of the individual states or were otherwise independent . General George Washington was the commander - in - chief of the army throughout the war . The United States Armed Forces are the federal armed forces of the United States . They consist of the Army , Marine Corps , Navy , Air Force , and Coast Guard . The President of the United States is the military ' s overall head , and helps form military policy with the U . S . Department of Defense ( DoD ), a federal executive department , acting as the principal organ by which military policy is carried out . From the time of its inception , the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States . A sense of national unity and identity was forged as a result of victory in the ___MASK24___ and the ___MASK88___ . Even so , the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force . It played an important role in the American Civil War , where leading generals on both sides were picked from members of the United States military . Not until the outbreak of ___MASK99___ II did a large standing army become officially established . The National Security Act of 1947 , adopted following ___MASK99___ II and during the ___MASK32___ ' s onset , created the modern U . S . military framework ; the Act merged previously Cabinet - level Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment ( renamed the Department of Defense in 1949 ), headed by the Secretary of Defense ; and created the Department of the Air Force and National Security Council .