 Throughout its history, the United States Army has been what the crisis of the times demanded it to be. It has, in varying periods, been rough and primitive and aggressive. When it could do no other, it has stood in the mud and fought for victory. When the only skills that counted were doggedness and daring, the Army applied them and wrote new pages of its triumphant story. Today, the complexities of the modern age demand of the Army a posture and a composition substantially different from those which have marked it in the past. And the Army, as it has always responded to the challenges of the times, has responded no less to this one. Today's modern Army is a carefully honed, thoroughly skilled, balanced force, essential to the security of the United States. Tailored to fight and win a modern war, and thus one of the nation's most effective deterrents to war. This state of being did not just happen. Many men have contributed to it. But since the creation of the National Security Act in 1947, which coincided with the beginning of the modern Army as we know it, four men have held down the role of top soldier, the awesomely demanding job of chief of staff. The state of the Army today can be in great part attributed to the mark made upon the times in which we live by these four leaders.