We suspect this must be a confusing time for all those who serve in the United States military.
› President Donald Trump, who has frequently declared the United States shall be involved in “no more wars,” recently signed an executive order changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, saying last week the name change alone “is going to stop wars.”
Created by President George Washington as the War Department in 1789, its name was changed to the Department of Defense by President Harry Truman — as approved by Congress — in 1947.
“I recommend that the Congress adopt legislation combining the War and Navy Departments into one single Department of National Defense,” he said in a special message to Congress in 1945. “Such unification is another essential step — along with universal training — in the development of a comprehensive and continuous program for our future safety and for the peace and security of the world.
“One of the lessons which have most clearly come from the costly and dangerous experience of this war is that there must be unified direction of land, sea and air forces at home as well as in all other parts of the world where our Armed Forces are serving. We did not have that kind of direction when we were attacked four years ago — and we certainly paid a high price for not having it.”