Happy 236th, Finance Corps

To the Leaders/Retirees and Friends of the Corps

16 June 2011 - Happy 236th Birthday to our Finance Corps.  On 14 June
1775, the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution allowing
George Washington to raise "ten Companies of expert riflemen."  Two days
later, 16 June 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the
position of the Paymaster General and tasked him with paying Soldiers on
a monthly basis.  Since then the Finance Corps has had the
responsibility of sustaining our Army's financial management efforts in
peace and in war.

Our Corps has one of the longest lineages in the Army and has
continually transformed to meet the needs of the changing operational
environment:

        (1) It originated on 16 June 1775, when the Second Continental
Congress appointed James Warren as the First Paymaster General of the
Army.

        (2) In 1816, the Pay Department was established and remained
unchanged until 1912, when it joined the Quartermaster Corps during WWI.

        (3) In October 1918, at the end of the war, Congress
reestablished the Finance Service.

        (4) In June 1920, it became the Finance Department as a separate
branch of the War Department.

        (5) In 1950 it became the Finance Corps as a basic branch of the
Army.

        (6) In May 1987, the Finance Corps underwent further change with
the activation of the Finance Corps Regiment.

        (7) In October 2008, the Finance Corps completed the merger of
its two core capabilities (resource management and finance operations)
into our overarching sustainment capability of financial management with
its new branch designation as Branch Code 36 (Financial Management).

To this end, our Corps continues to transform into a ready and balanced
force capable of executing Full Spectrum Operations through superbly
trained, educated, adaptive and agile Military & Civilian FM Warriors
enabled with state of the art FM and C2 systems and adept at the
coordinated application of fiscal and economic power in support of
national and military objectives.

Again, Happy 236th Birthday to the Finance Corps.

To Support and Serve!

T. A. CLAY
COL, FC
Commandant