General of the Army (United States)
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- This article is about a United States Army rank. For other countries that use a General of the Army rank, see General of the Army.
General of the Army is the highest rank currently attainable in the United States Army.[1] It is only used in time of War where the U.S. Commanding Officer must be of equal or higher rank than those commanding armies from other nations. In the modern United States Army, General of the Army is a five-star rank that is immediately above General. It is equivalent to the foreign rank of Field Marshal. No U.S. soldier currently holds the rank.
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[edit] Post-American Civil War era
On July 25, 1866, the U.S. Congress established the rank of "General of the Army of the United States" for Ulysses S. Grant. When appointed General of the Army, Grant wore the rank insignia of four stars and coat buttons arranged in three groups of four.
Unlike the World War II rank with a similar title, the 1866 rank of General of the Army was a four-star rank. Although unlike modern four-star Generals, only one officer could hold the 1866-1888 rank of General of the Army at any time.
After Grant retired to private life, he was succeeded as General of the Army by William T. Sherman, effective March 4, 1869. In 1872, Sherman ordered the insignia changed to two stars with the arms of the United States in between.
By an Act of June 1 1888, the grade of lieutenant general was discontinued and merged in that of General of the Army, which was then conferred upon Philip H. Sheridan. (The cover of Sheridan's autobiography was decorated with four stars within a rectangle evocative of the four-star shoulder strap worn by Grant.) The rank of general of the Army ceased to exist upon the death of Sheridan on August 5 1888 and the highest rank of the United States Army was again the two star major general rank.
[edit] World War II era
The second version of General of the Army was created by Pub.L. 78-482 passed on 14 December 1944,[2] first as a temporary rank, then made permanent 23 March 1946 by an act of the 79th Congress.[3] It was created to give the most senior American commanders parity of rank with their British counterparts holding the rank of field marshal. The acts also created a comparable rank of Fleet Admiral for the Navy. This second General of the Army rank is not considered comparable to the American Civil War era version.
The insignia for General of the Army, as created in 1944, consisted of five stars in a pentagonal pattern, with points touching. The five officers who have held the 1944 version of General of the Army were:
| • | George C. Marshall | 16 December 1944 |
| • | Douglas MacArthur | 18 December 1944 |
| • | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 20 December 1944 |
| • | Henry H. Arnold | 21 December 1944 |
| • | Omar Bradley | 20 September 1950 |
The timing of the first four appointments was coordinated with the appointment of the U.S. Navy's five-star Fleet Admirals (on 15, 17, and 19 December 1944) to establish both a clear order of seniority and a near-equivalence between the services.
A historical rumor suggests that the title 'General of the Army' was used instead of the 'Field Marshal' so that George Marshall would not be known as "Marshal Marshall". Most military sources agree that it is more likely that the rank was named after its 19th century counterpart and was so named because the rank of Field Marshal was considered by the U.S. military to be a European rank.[citation needed]
Dwight Eisenhower resigned his Army commission on May 31 1952 to run for president. After serving two terms, his successor, John F. Kennedy, signed Pub.L. 87-3 on March 23 1961 which returned Eisenhower to Active Duty of Regular Army in grade of General of the Army dated back to December 1944. This rank is today commemorated on the signs denoting Interstate Highways as part of the Eisenhower Interstate System, which display five silver stars on a light blue background.[4][5]
[edit] Modern use
There have been no officers appointed to the rank of General of the Army since Omar Bradley. The rank of General of the Army is still maintained as a rank of the U.S. military, and could again be bestowed pending approval of the United States Congress. Current U.S. military policy is that General of the Army, General of the Air Force, and Fleet Admiral are ranks only to be used in time of war when the commanding officer must be equal to or of higher rank than those commanding armies from another nation.
In the 1990s, the Defense Department gave some indication that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would possibly one day be a position worthy of the rank General of the Army, Fleet Admiral, or General of the Air Force as appropriate. This would be problematic in that with the appointment of United States Marine Corps Generals as Chairman, there is no current five-star USMC rank. Congressional sources indicated that there were no plans to promote any modern-day general officers to the rank of General of the Army.[citation needed]
[edit] General of the Armies
General of the Armies is considered senior to General of the Army, but was never held by active duty officers at the same time as persons who held the rank of General of the Army. It has been held by two people John J. Pershing who received the rank in 1919 after World War I, and George Washington who received it in 1976 as part of the American Bicentennial celebrations. While it is unclear whether Pershing's acknowledged seniority to the World War II era Generals of the Army was due to his rank being superior or because his appointment was earlier, in Washington's appointment by Public Law 94-479, General of the Armies of the United States was established as having "rank and precedence over all other grades of the Army, past or present," clearly making it superior to General of the Army.
[edit] Equivalent Ranks
The rank of General of the Army is equivalent to the U.S. Air Force's rank of General of the Air Force and the U.S. Navy's rank of Fleet Admiral. The U.S. Marines do not have an equivalent five-star rank.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.army.mil/symbols/OfficerDescription2.html
- ^ Public Law 482. Retrieved on 2007-10-22.
- ^ Public Law 333, 79th Congress. Naval Historical Center (11 April 2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-22.
- ^ Eisenhower Military Ranks. Eisenhower Presidential Center. Retrieved on 2007-10-22.
- ^ Eisenhower Resigned as General. Eisenhower Presidential Center. Retrieved on 2007-10-22.
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
de:General of the Army es:General del Ejército (Estados Unidos) fr:Général d'armée ja:元帥 (アメリカ合衆国) ru:Генерал армии (США) sv:General of the Army
