Army of the United States

Inactive component of the United States Army

The Army of the United States is one of the four major service components of the United States Army (the others being the Regular Army, the United States Army Reserve and the Army National Guard of the United States), but it has been inactive since the suspension of the draft in 1973 and the U. S. military's transition to a volunteer force. Personnel serving in the United States Army during a major national emergency or armed conflict (either voluntarily or involuntarily) were enlisted or inducted into the Army of the United States without specifying service in a component. It also includes the "Retired Reserve." Those are retired soldiers who have reached the required years of creditable service, or creditable service and age; regardless of the component, or components they formerly served in. The term "Army of the United States" or "Armies of the United States" is also the legal name of the collective land forces of the United States as prescribed by the United States Constitution. In this concept, the term "Army of the United States" has been in use since at least 1841 as in the title General Regulations for the Army of the United States. Also included by Act of the 39th Congress (1866) were the U. S. Volunteers, persons holding a brevetted rank, and the U. S. Veteran Reserve Corps.

The original concept of a non Regular Army component, existing to augment the standing military, can trace its origins to the United States Volunteers. State volunteer forces were used extensively to augment the Regular Army throughout the 19th and early 20th century. During World War I and dictated by the provisions of the National Defense Act of 1916, states contributed men to the "Volunteer Army" (more commonly known as the National Army). During World War I, a standard practice developed for Regular Army officers to serve in higher positions within the National Army, and thus hold two ranks a permanent rank and a temporary rank. This concept was related to the idea of the brevet rank, which had generally fallen into disuse by the time of the First World War. The National Army was suspended after World War I.

In September 1940, the United States reintroduced conscription in response to the increasing likelihood of entry into World War II. Personnel voluntarily enlisting into the United States Army could choose to voluntarily enlist into the Regular Army, National Guard of the United States, or Organized Reserve. On 14 May 1940, legislation provided that all voluntary enlistments in the United States Army during a time of national emergency or war were to be in the Army of the United States "without specification of any particular component or unit thereof." The "Army of the United States" as a service component was formally activated in February 1941. It was legally considered the successor to the National Army. The Army of the United States saw a major expansion following the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. On 13 December 1941, legislation provided that personnel inducted into the United States Army under the terms of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 were, both retroactively and from that date on, considered to be serving in the Army of the United States. The first commissioned officers serving in the Army of the United States were appointed from the Regular Army. The standard practice was that these officers held a "permanent rank" within the Regular Army as well as a higher "temporary rank" while serving in the Army of the United States. A typical situation might be a colonel in the AUS holding the permanent rank of captain in the Regular Army. Another term for rank held in the Army of the United States was "theater rank" since the officer was likely to revert to permanent rank if transferred home from the theater of operations. Promotions within the Army of the United States were sometimes very rapid, and some officers were promoted as many as four to five times in the space of just three to four years. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as General of the Army, rose from a colonel to five star general in three years, holding one star and two star ranks for only four months each. However, rank in the AUS could be revoked just as easily, with senior commanders who were relieved reverting to their permanent Regular Army rank. This was known as "loss of theater rank", with some instances of generals returning to the United States in disgrace or at least under a cloud, as only colonels or majors.

There is no equivalent to the Army of the United States in the U. S. Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard. During World War II, officers who joined one of these branches were typically commissioned into the "Naval Reserve," "Marine Corps Reserve," or "Coast Guard Reserve" respectively (the last of these being newly created in the run up to the war), with the understanding that their active service would be only for the duration of the hostilities. In 1948, for a very brief period, a component known as the "Air Forces of the United States" (AFUS) existed to augment Army Air Forces personnel, who held AUS ranks, into the newly created United States Air Force.