In 1942, the Army was divided between
Army Ground Forces; Army Service Forces; and the Services of Supply. On 30 August 1945, Army Chief of Staff General
George Marshall created a board headed by Lieutenant General
Alexander M. Patch to review the organization of the
War Department. The board submitted its recommendations to the Chief of Staff on 18 October of the same year. These were that the technical services be continued, with the
Transportation Corps made permanent, and that the Finance Department becoming an eighth technical service. The service commands would be abolished, and their functions transferred to the Armies. The Army Service Forces would also be abolished, and its staff sections transferred to the War Department General Staff. In accordance with these recommendations, on 11 June 1946, Army Service Forces and the nine service commands areas were abolished. The service commands were replaced by six field armies. These six army areas, though similar in name, operated on a functional rather than geographic basis but roughly followed along the old
corps area boundaries. Army Ground Forces moved from
Washington, D.C. to
Fort Monroe. •
First Army, headquartered at
Fort Jay in New York, New York included ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NJ, NY and DE. •
Second Army, headquartered at Baltimore, Maryland included PA, MD, VA, WV, OH, IN and KY. •
Third Army, headquartered variously in rented office space in downtown Atlanta and in 1946 at
Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia included NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, TN and MS •
Fourth Army, headquartered at
Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas included TX, AR, LA, OK, and NM. •
Fifth Army, headquartered at
Fort Sheridan near Chicago, Illinois included IL, MI, WI, MN, IA, MO, KS, NE, ND, SD, WY and CO. •
Sixth Army, headquartered at
Presidio of San Francisco, California included WA, OR, ID, MT, UT, NV and CA. In March 1948, a large-scale reorganization of the
Department of the Army created the Office of the Chief of Army Field Forces (OCAFF) at
Fort Monroe and placed the armies and installations in the continental United States directly under departmental control. Seven years later, the recommendations of the Davis Committee were implemented, establishing
U.S. Continental Army Command (
CONARC) to carry out both training and operations. In 1973, forces in the United States were split between two new commands,
U.S. Army Forces Command (
FORSCOM) and
U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). FORSCOM assumed CONARC's responsibility for the command and collective training of all divisions and corps in the continental U.S. and for the installations where they were based. To do this it had the help of various regional numbered army headquarters,
First Army, Third Army (until 1974)
Fourth Army,
Fifth Army, and
Sixth Army, at various times. In 1987, FORSCOM was given the status of a "specified command", or almost equal to a
unified combatant command, with a broad and continuing mission, but composed solely of Army forces. Like the unified commands, the specified commands reported directly to the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, instead of their respective service chiefs. Fourth Army
cased its colors and was inactivated for the last time in 1991. FORSCOM lost its specified status in 1993. In October 1994, the
United States Army Aviation Center asked the
United States Army Force Integration Support Agency (USAFISA) to review the
U.S. Army Air Traffic Control Activity. The Army Aviation Center wanted to make sure that its limited
air traffic control (ATC) resources were being properly used. USAFISA concluded that the planning of ATC in the mid-1980s, part of creating the then-new
Aviation Branch, had never been properly incorporated. ATC skills and services were eroding to the point of endangering
aviation safety. As a result, General
Eric Shinseki, then the
Vice Chief of Staff, approved the concept of a separate command for
air traffic services (ATS). On August 28, 2003, Army Traffic Services Command (ATSC) was formally activated and relocated from
Fort McPherson to
Fort Rucker.
Sixth Army was headquartered at the
Presidio of San Francisco. It was eventually inactivated in June 1995. In 2004,
Fifth Army transferred its Reserve Component preparation obligations to
First Army, and became responsible for homeland defense and
Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) as
United States Army North, the
Army Service Component Command of
United States Northern Command. Following the recommendations of the
2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, FORSCOM Headquarters moved from
Fort McPherson, Georgia to a building at
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in June 2011. The Command hosted a "
Casing of the Colors" ceremony on 24 June 2011 at Fort McPherson, and an "Uncasing of Colors" on 1 August 2011 at Fort Bragg. In late April and early May 2025, the United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of the Army announced the establishment of the
United States Army Western Hemisphere Command (USAWHC) as part of the Army’s Continuous Transformation initiative. Effective late 2025, USAWHC will consolidate United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), United States Army North (ARNORTH), and United States Army South (ARSOUTH) into a single four-star command. USAWHC will serve as the Army Service Component Command (ASCC) for both United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), assuming all Title X (10) responsibilities previously divided among the three U.S. Army commands for U.S. Army operations, homeland defense and security cooperation throughout North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. The merger better aligns U.S. Army forces with regional partnership priorities. ==Active Army and Army Reserve==