Who is the Commander in Chief of the military?

Why this is the answer

The President is the Commander in Chief. Article II, Section 2 puts the Army and the Navy under the President's command, along with each state's militia once it has been called into national service. Today that reaches all six branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, where service is voluntary and more than 2 million people serve. Why a President and not a general? The Founding Fathers believed in republican government, in which political power comes from the citizens and is exercised by representatives they elect. Giving command to a civilian chosen by the people kept the armed forces answerable to the public rather than to a professional military leader. Alexander Hamilton treated the clause as almost too obvious to defend in Federalist No. 74. Of everything a government does, he argued, directing a war is the task that most demands the qualities of power held by a single hand. Command is only half the design, though. Article I gives Congress the power to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy and to make the rules that govern the land and naval forces. It even puts a clock on military funding: no appropriation for the army may last longer than two years, so Congress has to keep renewing its support. That balance was tested in 1973, when many members of Congress felt the President was ignoring the legislative branch. They passed the War Powers Act to give Congress a stronger voice over the use of U.S. troops. President Richard Nixon vetoed the bill, and Congress overrode the veto, a clear case of one branch checking another. On the test, "the President" is all you need to say. Naming the Secretary of Defense or a top general gets the relationship backwards. Article II lets the President ask each department head for a written opinion, so advice moves up the chain while orders come down from an elected civilian.