The U.S. Soldier's Creed is a standard that all United States Army personnel are encouraged to live by. All U.S. Army enlisted personnel are taught the Soldier's Creed during basic training, and recite the creed in public ceremonies at the conclusion of training. Both The Soldier's Creed and the Noncommissioned officer's creed is required knowledge at enlisted promotion boards to compete for the rank of Sergeant and above, as well as Soldier of the Month boards. It is also common practice to recite the Soldier's Creed at the graduation ceremony from Army ROTC. Unlike the United States Uniformed Services Oath of Office or the Oath of enlistment, the Soldier's Creed can be affirmed by both Army officers and Soldiers.

The current version of the Soldier's Creed is a product of the Warrior Ethos program authorized by the then Army Chief of Staff Eric K. Shinseki in May 2003. It was written by members of Task Force Soldier's Warrior Ethos Team, and was first approved in its current format by the next Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker on the 13 November 2003. The introduction of the Soldier's Creed kicked off a campaign known as Task Force Soldier. This is a leadership commitment to soldiers ensuring that they are prepared for combat and embody the Warrior Ethos that is contained in the Soldier's Creed. It seems to have been discussed in Congress in a Hearing on Army Issues held by Senator John W. Warner on or about November 19, 2003.^{[citation needed]} It was first published in the magazine Infantry on 22 December 2003.

The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.