National Security Act (1947)
The legal hinge of the modern department and a separate USAF. A founding or preface structure of United States military.
Historical Continental, Union/USCT, AEF, 1941-45 mobilisation, 1947 department, Eighth Army 1950-53 -- past structures.
Not a current unified-command map, not a ROK-US combined live ORBAT, not a nuclear plan.
Systems
All-volunteer force
1973 end of the draft -- a social hinge.
Goldwater-Nichols
1986 jointness law -- an institutional reform date. A civil-military or alliance bargain -- dated, not a live chart.
Ulysses S. Grant
The Civil War closer -- a mass-army name. Cost lives on that war's page.
26 July 1947
A department is written into law.
No live ORBAT
United States military is era-bounded force-structure history in A continental republic that became a global basing and alliance system after 1941. Cost band of related wars: not one war -- an institution; human cost sits in the wars this atlas already files.
Meters
Geographic / demographic scale
80
Peak intensity
55
How long it defined a period
74
Tech or method shift
86
Borders, regimes, law, alliances
88
Film, school, ritual density
78
Hotspots
Republic to mass war
1775-1865: Militia politics then Grant's war. Named as historical geography of United States military, not as a targeting list.
Expedition to peak
1917-45: AEF then a two-ocean war. Named as historical geography of United States military, not as a targeting list.
Department and Korea
1947-53: A legal hinge and a hot war. Named as historical geography of United States military, not as a targeting list.
Vietnam and the draft's end
1964-73: The social hinge. Named as historical geography of United States military, not as a targeting list.
Volunteer and joint
After 1973: AVF; Goldwater-Nichols; long wars as public file -- not a tracker. Named as historical geography of United States military, not as a targeting list.
Materials
Chronology (1775 origins; 1861-65 mass army; 1941-45 global peak; 1947 National Security Act as the modern department hinge)
United States military is bounded as 1775 origins; 1861-65 mass army; 1941-45 global peak; 1947 National Security Act as the modern department hinge. 1775 opens the usual narrative (Continental forces); 1973 / 1986 closes it (AVF and Goldwater-Nichols).
Theatre: A continental republic that became a global bas.
Place is evidence. A continental republic that became a global basing and alliance system after 1941 is where United States military happened -- a map for readers, not a guide for repeating it.
Human-cost band
not one war -- an institution; human cost sits in the wars this atlas already files Keep the figure as a range. Spectacle integers are not a census.
All-volunteer force
1973 end of the draft -- a social hinge. A material of the United States military vocabulary, dated to 1775 origins; 1861-65 mass army; 1941-45 global peak; 1947 National Security Act as the modern department hinge.
A draft board in 1951 is social history.
No SOF method and no targeting cycle.