General of the Armies

General of the Armies of the United States is a high rank in the United States Army.

No one currently holds the rank of General of the Armies of the United States, and it has never been used by an active duty Army officer at the same time as all the other ranks, so it is not clear how it compares to them. General of the Armies of the United States is sometimes considered to be the equivalent of the foreign ranks of Generalissimo or Grand Marshal.

History

Main article: General (United States) § History

The only officer who ever held the rank General of the Armies while on active duty was John Pershing. He was given the rank in 1919 in recognition of his service in World War I. For more on the history of the General of the Armies rank, see General (United States)#History.

Modern use

General of the Armies of the United States - This rank has not been used by an active duty military officer since General Pershing was promoted to the rank in 1919. George Washington was given posthumous recognition as General of the Armies of the United States in 1976.

Six Star Rank

Insignia

General Pershing was offered the option to create his own insignia for the position General of the Armies. He chose to continue to wear the four stars of a General, but in gold, instead of the four silver stars used by a regular general. Army Regulations 600-35, Personnel: The Prescribed Uniform, October 12, 1921, and all subsequent editions during General Pershing's lifetime, made no mention of insignia for General of the Armies but prescribed that generals would wear four stars.

On December 14, 1944, when the rank of General of the Army was established, Army Regulations 600-35 were changed to prescribe that Generals of the Army would wear five silver stars. General Pershing continued to wear only four gold stars, but he remained preeminent among all Army personnel until his death in 1948.

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Conjectural Design for General of the Armies

In 1945, the Institute of Heraldry prepared a conjectural insignia which would have incorporated a sixth star into the five-star design of General of the Army. As no proposal to appoint a new General of the Armies was ever firmly developed, the United States Army has never officially approved a six-star general insignia.

Seniority

During World War II the United States Army established the five-star rank of General of the Army. By order of seniority, it was decided that General Pershing (still living when the rank of General of the Army was created in 1944) would be senior to all the newly appointed General of the Army officers. The then Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson said:

It appears the intent of the Army was to make the General of the Armies senior in grade to the General of the Army. I have advised Congress that the War Department concurs in such proposed action.

The rank of General of the Army also created the question of whether General of the Armies should then be considered a six-star rank. Some people have interpreted General Pershing's seniority to five-star generals to mean that General of the Armies is a six-star rank. However, it could alternatively be said that General of the Armies is a five-star rank, and Pershing's seniority is merely a result of the fact that he achieved his rank earlier than the other five-star generals.

When the five-star General of the Army rank was created, Secretary of War Stimson was asked whether Pershing was a six-star general. Stimson stated that as Pershing was no longer active in the military and had never worn more than four General's stars, he should not be seen as holding six-star rank.

However, it has been speculated that if the United States ever created a six-star rank, it might be called General of the Armies. This almost occurred with Douglas MacArthur.

Douglas MacArthur

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Promotion order for Douglas MacArthur to assume the rank of General of the Armies

In 1945 as part of the preparation for Operation Downfall (the planned invasion of Japan) a proposal was discussed in the War Department to appoint Douglas MacArthur to the rank of General of the Armies. Following the use of the atomic bomb in August 1945, however, the proposal was dropped.

The matter was raised again in 1955, when the United States Congress considered a bill authorizing President Dwight D. Eisenhower to promote MacArthur to General of the Armies, in recognition of his many years of service. At that time, the Army Judge Advocate General warned that, should MacArthur accept promotion to the new rank, he would lose a large amount of retirement pay and benefits associated with the much more firmly established rank of five-star General of the Army, which he still held. The Army General Staff was also concerned that George C. Marshall was senior to MacArthur and that, should MacArthur be made a General of the Armies, a similar measure would have to be passed promoting Marshall as well. Because of the various complications, MacArthur declined promotion and the bill to promote him was dropped.

But some people continued to push for MacArthur to get promoted. The MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk has numerous letters on file dating from 1962 to 1964 between advocates (former MacArthur aides and others) and government officials attempting to obtain the six-star promotion. In the letters, in a congressional record appendix from February 1962 (pages A864-A865), and in the bill to promote him, this promotion was referred to alternately as "six-star general" and "general of the armies." The proponents even obtained a vote of neutral support from Harry Truman. (He would neither support nor attempt to scuttle the promotion.) The proponents' promotion attempts were ultimately scuttled by the John F. Kennedy assassination and then MacArthur's passing in 1964.

George Washington

Main article: Military career of George Washington

After World War II, which saw the introduction of U.S. "5-star" officers who outranked Washington, both Congress and the President revisited the issue of Washington's rank. To maintain George Washington's proper position as the first Commanding General of the United States Army, he was appointed, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 January 19, 1976, approved by President Gerald R. Ford on October 11, 1976. The Department of the Army Order 31-3, issued on March 13, 1978 had an effective appointment date of July 4, 1976. The rank ensures that no United States military officer outranks George Washington.

Equivalent Ranks

The rank of General of the Armies is equivalent to the U.S. Navy's rank of Admiral of the Navy. Admiral of the Navy has only been held by one person in history, George Dewey. As with General of the Armies, a proposal was made during World War II to bring back the rank as a six-star equivalent, under the title Flag Admiral. Chester Nimitz was briefly considered for the position, but the proposal was dropped by the United States Navy Department before the war ended, and has not been revived since. The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marines do not have an equivalent to the rank of General of the Armies of the United States.

References

• Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff (Center for Military History)
• How many U.S. Army five-star generals have there been and who were they? from the U.S. Army Center of Military History
• Military service record of Douglas MacArthur, Military Personnel Records Center
• Naval service record of Chester Nimitz, Military Personnel Records Center

External links

• The Origin of the Ranks and Rank Insignia Now Used by the United States Armed Forces
• Abandoned proposal for six-star rank in Second World War
• General of the Armies of the United States and General of the Army of the United States

See also

• List of United States four-star officers
• List of United States Army four-star generals
• List of United States military leaders by rank
• United States Army officer rank insignia