July-August 2016 – At the end of March 2016 (Graph above ends December, 2015.), the Army numbered just over 479,000 active soldiers. The only time the U.S. has had a smaller army in recent history was in 1940, with 269,000 soldiers prior to entering World War II. The Army is projected to shrink to 450,000 by 2018.
Reducing the size of the Army has been part of President Barack Obama’s administrative policy, according to Bob Maginnis, a military analyst, retired lieutenant colonel, and senior fellow with Family Research Council.
“One of the major things Obama has done is to make us capable of fighting only one war at a time,” Maginnis said. “Since the end of World War II, our national security strategy had always provided for the ability to fight two wars simultaneously.”
