Good overview, but needs better fact checking.

An overview of the United States military from pre-revolutionary times through today.

It's an incredibly ambitious project to cover over 250 years of the American fighting man in 85 minutes. Overall, it's well done and mostly factual. There are multiple items that could've used fact checking or simply rewriting but overall a good presentation of history.

The series focuses on several major events in American history that highlight significant changes in the military fighting man of the United States. The first major change highlighted is the transition from local militia and the Minutemen to a unified American army under George Washington.

As a former marine, a huge missing element is the formation of the USMC at Tun's Tavern in 1775. But I digress.

Following the revolutionary war, this documentaries next stop is the Westward expansion through the Cumberland gap by Daniel Boone. Timing wise, this proceeded the revolutionary war, however, historically the revolutionary war was much more important than the Cumberland gap expansion.

One of the contradictions occurs here where the Narrator talks about the American military learning about guerrilla warfare from the Indians during the Cumberland gap expansion. In the previous revolutionary war scenes, the narrator describes the guerrilla warfare tactics used by the American military, especially the sniper units that picked off British Indian scouts, and British officers.

The next major scene in the documentary is the war of 1812 between America and French forces against British and Indian forces. The writers are highly sentimental towards the American Indians. American settlers on the frontier are described as not trying to understand the American Indians. Personally, I think it's hard to understand people that are trying to kill you. The program also goes into detail about the forced relocation of American Indians from the southeast portion of the United States to west of the Mississippi. This forced relocation is known as the trail of tears. It's very hard for us in the 21st-century to look back at the 18th century through 21st century eyes and try to understand the decisions and the thought process of people living in those times.

Here the documentary moves ahead to the war with Mexico, skipping over the Republic of Texas and the origins of that war. The speaker describes this war as an amphibious operation, I imagine because they had to cross the Rio Grande River. The narrator describes the US Mexican war as a "war of conquest." again, the movie fails to acknowledge several key facts. The United States offered to purchase Texas and California, the Mexican government refused our negotiators, the Mexican government sent troops who attacked United States troops north of the Rio Grande, causing the United States Congress to declare war on Mexico. With only 85 minutes it's hard to report all the facts but leaving out key pertinent information is misleading.

Here the writers transition the United States military from one comprised of militia to a professionally lead military organization.

The next jump is to the Civil War. The writers spend a great deal of time on key battles in the Civil War. I believe this was an appropriate use of time because America lost more people in the Civil War than in all of the wars of the 20th century combined. Also there is focus on the development of weapons and ammunition that were key to the north win in preserving the union. The writers describe Abraham Lincoln's "emancipation proclamation" as a key element of the winning strategy to overcome the confederacy. They failed to mention that this only freed slaves in a small number of states, and not all of the slaves in the country.

Next chapter covers America's participation in World War I. Personally, I don't believe if describes the situation in Europe accurately. America did not participate in World War I until the very end, however, America's entrance into the war, proved decisive in the British and French victory over Germany.

World War II, especially the D-Day landing, operation overlord, is covered in fairly great detail. Pearl Harbor and the use of atomic bombs in Japan are also highlighted.

Overall, a very ambitious effort, and a better than average military documentary.

The war genre features armed conflicts, both historical and fictional, and the experiences of individuals and groups involved in warfare. This genre explores the physical, emotional, and moral challenges faced by soldiers, civilians, and others affected by war.

Traces the evolution of America's fighting men and women over the 250-year history of the nation. From the early settlers and the Revolutionary War against Britain, soldiers have played a key role in the seminal events that have shaped America.

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The American Soldier

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