Soon after George Washington, a Virginia slaveholder, took command of the Continental army in 1775, blacks were forbidden to serve.

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When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

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Still, when I think of how hopeless the prospects for the Continental Army appeared that winter in Valley Forge, and yet somehow defeat was averted, it humbles me.

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As a leader in the Continental Army who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with men from Europe and America alike, Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski battled to extend the principles that were as dear to him as they are to us -- liberty, equality, and justice for all.

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After the first three years of the Revolutionary War, every patriot recognized two men as the greatest warriors and leaders of the time: George Washington commander of the Continental Army, and Benedict Arnold, captor of Fort Ticonderoga, invader of Canada, and victor of the battle of Saratoga.

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As Army forces become ever more concentrated in the continental United States, the national need for the means to redeploy them to distant battlefields will increase markedly.

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