Cover: “Braddock’s Defeat” artist unknown (West Point Museum Art Collection, U.S. Military Academy); below, “Satan’s Sandbox” by Elzie R. Golden (Army Art Collection). The United States Army was born on 14 June 1775, drawn largely from the colonial militia. Twenty years earlier, the defeat of British Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock’s force by the French and their Indian allies made a deep impression on a young Virginia militia officer, George Washington, serving with the British regulars. As commander in chief of the Continental Army, Washington used lessons from that engagement to win the Revolutionary War and American independence. Over the following centuries, the Army has served the nation well in peace and war, including victory in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.