As the senior military branch of the United States Armed Forces, the Army’s roots reach all the way back to the Continental Army, first established on 14 June, 1775. The Army as we now know it, however, was born on 3 June, 1784, when the Congress of the Confederation (America’s Congress prior to the establishment of the Constitution) formed the new United States Army as a replacement for its disbanded predecessor.

Although the U.S. Army’s primary role is defined as land-based military operations, it has grown to envelope nearly all facets of the war fighting endeavor. In 2017, the Army maintained ongoing combat operations in multiple theaters, responded to natural disasters, and shifted training strategies to prepare for the possibility of peer and near-peer level warfare with national militaries.

Here are the five best pictures they took along the way:

#5 – A Wall of Fire

#4 – Paratroopers in Alaska

#3 – Basic Demolition

#2 – Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa

#1 – Allied Spirit

Images courtesy of the U.S. Army