conflict william h. pitsenbarger
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 ___MASK58___ ( 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 National Security Act of 1947 was a major restructuring of the United States government ' s military and intelligence agencies following ___MASK49___ II . The majority of the provisions of the Act took effect on September 18 , 1947 , the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense . The Gulf of Thailand , formerly the Gulf of Siam , is a shallow inlet in the western part of the South China and Eastern Archipelagic Seas , a marginal body of water in the western Pacific Ocean . The gulf is around 800 km ( 497 mi ) long and up to 560 km ( 348 mi ) wide , has a surface area of 320 , 000 km ( 123 , 553 sq mi ) and is surrounded on the north , west and southwest by Thailand , on the northeast by Cambodia and ___MASK31___ . The South China Sea is to the southeast . Cambodia ( or Kampuchea ), officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia ( Preh Réachéanachâk Kâmpchéa ), is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia . It is in area , bordered by Thailand to the northwest , Laos to the northeast , ___MASK31___ to the east , and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest . 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 ___MASK86___ and the ___MASK61___ . 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 ___MASK49___ II did a large standing army become officially established . The National Security Act of 1947 , adopted following ___MASK49___ II and during the ___MASK43___ ' 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 . South ___MASK31___ , officially the Republic of ___MASK31___ was a state governing the southern half of ___MASK31___ from 1955 to 1975 . It received international recognition in 1949 as the " State of ___MASK31___ " ( 1949  55 ), and later as the " Republic of ___MASK31___ " ( 1955  75 ). Its capital was Saigon . The term " South ___MASK31___ " became common usage in 1954 , when the Geneva Conference provisionally partitioned ___MASK31___ into communist and non - communist parts . The ___MASK48___ , officially the Republic of the ___MASK48___ , is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean . It consists of about 7 , 641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south : Luzon , Visayas , and Mindanao . The capital city of the ___MASK48___ is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City , both part of Metro Manila . Bounded by the South China Sea on the west , the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest , the ___MASK48___ shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north , Vietnam to the west , Palau to the east and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south . Laos , (, , or , " Lo ") officially the Lao People ' s Democratic Republic , ( Lao :          , " Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao ") or commonly referred to its colloquial name of Muang Lao ( Lao :    , " Muang Lao ") is a landlocked country in the heart of the Indochinese peninsula of Mainland Southeast Asia , bordered by Myanmar ( Burma ) and China to the northwest , ___MASK31___ to the east , Cambodia to the southwest , and Thailand to the west and southwest . The United States Air Force ( USAF ) is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services . Initially part of the United States Army , the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 . It is the most recent branch of the U . S . military to be formed , and is the largest and one of the world ' s most technologically advanced air forces . The USAF articulates its core functions as Nuclear Deterrence Operations , Special Operations , Air Superiority , Global Integrated ISR , Space Superiority , Command and Control , Cyberspace Superiority , Personnel Recovery , Global Precision Attack , Building Partnerships , Rapid Global Mobility and Agile Combat Support . William Hart Pitsenbarger ( July 8 , 1944 -- April 11 , 1966 ) was a United States Air Force Pararescueman who gave his life aiding and defending a unit of soldiers pinned down by an enemy assault in ___MASK31___ . He was initially posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross , which was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor . He was the first enlisted recipient of the Air Force Cross medal , receiving the award in 1966 . Hanoi ( or ; Vietnamese : Hà Ni ) is the capital of ___MASK31___ and the country ' s second largest city . Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2 . 6 million for urban districts and 7 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction . The population in 2015 was estimated at 7 . 7 million people . From 1010 until 1802 , it was the most important political centre of ___MASK31___ . It was eclipsed by Hu , the imperial capital of ___MASK31___ during the Nguyn Dynasty ( 1802  1945 ), but Hanoi served as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 to 1954 . From 1954 to 1976 , it was the capital of North ___MASK31___ , and it became the capital of a reunified ___MASK31___ in 1976 , after the North ' s victory in the ___MASK82___ . ___MASK31___ , officially the Socialist Republic of ___MASK31___ ( SRV ), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia . With an estimated 90 . 5 million inhabitants , it is the world ' s 14th - most - populous country , and the eighth - most - populous Asian country . ___MASK31___ is bordered by China to the north , Laos to the northwest , Cambodia to the southwest , Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest , and the ___MASK48___ , Malaysia and Indonesia across the South China Sea to the east and southeast . Its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South ___MASK31___ in 1976 . Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy located in Southeast Asia . It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions , Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia ( Malaysian Borneo ). Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore , ___MASK31___ , and Indonesia . East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the ___MASK48___ and ___MASK31___ . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur , while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government . With a population of over 30 million , Malaysia is the 44th most populous country . The southernmost point of continental Eurasia , Tanjung Piai , is in Malaysia . Located in the tropics , Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries on earth , with large numbers of endemic species .