5 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About The U.S. Military
Today (May 19) is Armed Forces Day, a day for us to honor all our military personnel serving in the five U.S. military branches. Since 1950, it's been celebrated on the third Saturday in May.
Maybe you already knew all that, and maybe you celebrate it every year. We owe a lot to our military, every time you cast a vote in an election, you should thank someone who served.
So, in honor of that and to celebrate U.S. service members, and thanks to ajc.com, here are five things you may not know about the American military:
- 1
30 American Presidents served in the U.S. Army
24 of the 30 actually served in time of war. Those Presidents include George Washington,James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush
- 2
The U.S. Department of Defense used 1,760 PlayStation 3s to build a supercomputer
They call it the Condor Cluster, it's the most powerful gaming console on the planet and is housed in Rome, New York. It reportedly has capabilities heads and tails above every other interactive computer in the Department of Defense.
- 3
The Navy Was Way Ahead of the 1970's, when they introduced bell bottom trousers in 1817
The original purpose of bell bottom pants were for men to roll them above the knee when washing down the decks. In addition, the trousers can be used as a life preserver if you knot the legs, I bet John Travolta never had that in mind in Saturday Night Fever.
- 4
The U.S. Department of Defense Employ's more people then any other business in the world.
The Department of Defense employs some three million employees, and has a budget of $419.3 billion, compare that with Wal-Mart, which has a budget of about $277 billion, and employs about 1.3 million people.
- 5
The U.S. military uses an almost completely silent type of Velcro that reduces the ripping noise by over 95 percent.
If you've ever opened something connected with Velcro, people in a six state radius could probably hear it, not good if you're trying to hide your position in the field. Check out the video below, it's a Velcro lover's dream.