SHAKO: Happy Birthday U.S. Army

238 Years Young

(Defense Dept. photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo)

Most Americans know that today, June 14, is Flag Day — when people are encouraged to show the colors at home, work and elsewhere. On this date in 1777, Congress approved the 13-Star, 13-Stripe, red, white and blue banner as the national flag.

Many Americans, don’t know that June 14 is also the birthday of the U.S. Army. That’s when the Continental Congress voted in 1775 to consider the rebel New England militia besieging the Redcoats in Boston as the united colonies’ Continental Army and also authorized $2 million to pay for it all.

Less than a month later, George Washington — French and Indian War veteran, Virginia planter and future president — took command of the “rabble in arms” at Cambridge, Massachusetts and began the daunting task of turning farmers, shopkeepers and apprentices into an organized fighting force..

Washington Takes Command, an 1876 rendering. (Courtesy of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association via the National Institutes of Health)

The photo at the top shows Army brass at a Pentagon cake-cutting ceremony (with sword) on June 13.

From left, Army Col. Arthur Wittich, the oldest soldier serving in the Military District of Washington; Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno; Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (a Vietnam War Army veteran); Army Secretary John M. McHugh; Sgt. Maj. of the Army Raymond F. Chandler III and Pfc. Andrew Segla, the youngest soldier serving in the Military District of Washington.

In the audience, the faces of today’s Army. (Defense Dept. photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo)

SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.

FRIDAY FOTO (June 14, 2013)

On the Brink

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Christopher Q. Stone)

A U.S. Marine prepares to exit the back of an MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft high above Djibouti near the Horn of Africa.

The Marines — from the Maritime Raid Force with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) —  were conducting parachute operations with French special operations forces in May.

The Osprey can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like an airplane. The one is this photo is assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 266. The 26th MEU is a Marine Air-Ground Task Force deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility with the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group.

To see more spectacular photos of this jump, as well as what the Osprey looks like in flight — and the very interesting headgear of the French parachutists, click here.