General of the Armies of the United States, or more commonly referred to as General of the Armies, is the highest possible officer rank of the United States Army.[1]
Only two soldiers have been granted the rank of General of the Armies; John J. Pershing in 1919 to honor his service in World War I and George Washington in 1976, as part of the American bicentennial celebrations, to commemorate his leadership and involvement in the founding of the United States of America.[1][2] Douglas MacArthur was considered for the rank, both during and after World War II, but a formal promotion order was never issued.[3]
Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman and Phillip Sheridan, held the post-Civil War rank of General of the Army of the United States. During World War II the five-star rank of General of the Army was created. Both of these ranks are inferior to, and should not be confused with, General of the Armies of the United States.
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The rank of General of the Armies of the United States has a history spanning over two centuries and, during the course of the rank's existence, the rank has held different authority, seniority, and perceptions by both the American public and the military establishment. In all, there have been six versions of the rank General of the Armies, of which only three were ever formally bestowed:
The first mention of the rank "General of the Armies" was in an Act of the United States Congress on March 3, 1799. Congress provided:
The rank of General of the Armies was created to be bestowed upon George Washington, who had held the generic rank of general during the American Revolutionary War and, as of 1782, was listed as a lieutenant general on the rolls of the United States Army. Washington's rank was as the result of his having been regarded as a "three-star general" during the revolution, and the United States military using European style general ranks which incorporated a three-star rank of lieutenant general. The United States at this point had no four-star general rank (in Europe, the rank was known as captain general until the early 19th century and then simply as general). The rank of General of the Armies, however, was never bestowed on Washington, and, upon his death, the United States Army’s highest general rank was that of major general.
The second version of General of the Armies, although holding the same authority as the 1799 concept, was called "General of the Army of the United States" [4] and was held by Ulysses S. Grant,[4] William T. Sherman,[4] and Philip Sheridan[4] after the American Civil War.[4] This rank was revived as a third version of General of the Armies, which was held by John Pershing in 1919. Pershing's rank was legally the same as Grant's, though it used the full title "General of the Armies of the United States." [4]
John Pershing's promotion to General of the Armies is rooted in the former title "General of the Army" from the days of the American Civil War. The Civil War version of this rank was considered the same as a "four-star" general, unequal in status to the later version of General of the Army, which was used during World War II.
After the Civil War, the United States military lapsed into a period where the highest possible general officer rank was that of the two-star major general. During World War I, the United States Congress authorized the appointment of three-star lieutenant generals and four-star "full" generals. The four-star rank was considered the "successor rank" to the Civil War title "General of the Army" in that both were considered four-star positions.
Tasker H. Bliss and John J. Pershing were promoted to Army general in October 1917, and Peyton C. March was promoted in May 1918. Hunter Liggett and Robert Lee Bullard were both promoted to Army lieutenant general on 16 October 1918.
On 3 September 1919, President Woodrow Wilson, in accordance with Public Law 66-45, promoted Pershing to the rank of "General of the Armies of the United States"[5][6] in recognition of Pershing's performance as commander of the American Expeditionary Forces. The peculiar wording of Pershing's new rank (i.e. "of the Armies") was to distinguish that this held authority over all armed services, as opposed to the Civil War title "General of the Army" (itself an Army rank).
General Pershing was authorized to create his own insignia. He chose to wear the four stars of a general, but in gold. However, Army regulations of the time did not recognize this insignia, and Pershing's gold stars were never authorized as an official insignia.[7]
With Pershing's appointment to General of the Armies in 1919, the general officer rank structure of the United States Army appeared as follows:
| Brigadier general | |
| Major general | |
| Lieutenant general | |
| General | |
| General of the Armies of the United States |
After the war, in 1920, lieutenant generals and generals reverted to their permanent rank of major general.[8] Pershing, however, maintained his position as "General of the Armies" even though there were no longer any lieutenant generals or generals in active service. Pershing retired from the United States Army on 13 September 1924, and retained his rank on the U.S. Army retirement rolls until his death in 1948.[9]
Four-star generals were reauthorized in 1929, starting with Charles Pelot Summerall. Pershing, by this point, was no longer on active duty and his rank was regarded as senior to a full general but a rank which was no longer in the regular promotion tier. In many ways, Pershing's rank was at this time synonymous with a five-star general; however, this would come to change during World War II when the Army appointed five-star Generals of the Army under Public Law 78-482.
On 14 December 1944, the United States Army established a five-star general position and named this new rank "General of the Army" which was a title that had not been used since the 1880s after the Civil War. Unlike the Civil War version, however, the new rank was clearly a five-star position (whereas the old version was considered a four-star rank) and was appointed to several officers whereas the post-Civil War era rank had only been held by Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan.
General of the Armies Pershing was still living during World War II, albeit very elderly by this point. Nevertheless, the question was immediately raised by both the media and the public as to whether Pershing's rank "fit in" with the new five-star position. The situation was touchy from a diplomatic viewpoint, since the five-star General of the Army rank had been created largely to give American officers equal rank with British Army field marshals. The United States government was very hesitant to declare that Pershing held a senior rank to General of the Army, since this would elevate him to six-star status, the same as a marshal in Europe and possibly offend not only the British but also the French.
To solve the situation, it was decided that Pershing would outrank all five-star generals by order of seniority, meaning that even if he did not have a higher rank, he was considered senior by virtue of an earlier commissioning date. There was still rampant speculation, however, that Pershing was a six-star general, and the media put the matter directly to the War Department for a clear and concise answer.
In response to a direct question as to whether Pershing held six-star rank, the then Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson stated:
Stimson's answer was very carefully worded and nowhere did he ever actually state that Pershing held six-star rank. The situation with Pershing was seemingly solved, but the matter of a six-star general in the United States military would reappear in only a few months during the summer of 1945.
As part of the preparation for Operation Downfall (the planned invasion of Japan), the United States War Department began drawing up invasion manpower requirements for a large force organized into several Navy fleets and Army groups. The Army also saw the need for a possible promotion of more officers to the rank of General of the Army, depending on the size of the invasion force, as well as the participation of American allies in the Pacific (such as the Royal Navy and the Chinese Army) all of which maintained their own equivalents to five-star rank.
It became obvious that the Supreme Commander for the attack of Japan would hold an enormous amount of power and would command an invasion force larger than any seen to date in the Second World War. It was also clear that whoever this commander was would have direct command authority of not one, but several five-star officers. To that end, a proposal was discussed in the War Department to appoint Douglas MacArthur to the rank of "General of the Armies" and have this position be considered a six-star general rank.
The proposal for MacArthur's promotion to a new rank was begun on 23 July 1945.[10] The Army draft for the promotion specified three key points regarding the renewed proposal for General of the Armies:
The Institute of Heraldry produced a single sketch of how the insignia for six-star rank would appear, which was later filed into Douglas MacArthur's service record.[11]
The proposal for MacArthur's promotion was dropped by the United States Army on 18 August 1945, four days after Japan's surrender announcement rendered the planned invasion moot. MacArthur's service record indicates the promotion package was closed due to "lack of necessity for such a rank".[12]
As this proposal to promote MacArthur was simply "on the drawing board", the United States Army firmly states (to the present day) that there has never been an officially recognized six-star general rank in the United States military hierarchy. John Pershing's status remains in a very gray area, in particular due to the vague statements made by Secretary of War Stimson and the fact that Pershing was never on active duty at the same time as a five-star General of the Army. Pershing's rank has thus been interpreted as a senior version of a four-star general, an earlier version of a five-star general, or a six-star rank that has never been officially recognized.
In the early 1950s, supporters of Douglas MacArthur began to petition the United States government to authorize a "promotion" to the rank of General of the Armies. MacArthur was at this time a retired five-star general and, with the movement to promote him, it was clear that (Army regulations notwithstanding) the general public felt that the rank of General of the Armies was a six-star position.
In 1955, the United States Congress considered a bill authorizing President Dwight D. Eisenhower to promote MacArthur to the rank of General of the Armies. The language used in the bill states that the rank was to be "re-activated" and that MacArthur was to be "promoted" to the position. With such terms, the Congressional legislation all but confirmed that General of the Armies was a senior rank to that of General of the Army; however, the Army itself still did not declare that General of the Armies was a six-star rank.
Had Douglas MacArthur actually been promoted, much of the confusion regarding the status of General of the Armies would in all likelihood have been resolved. This would have been the case due to the number of five-star generals still on the Army rolls, and to introduce a rank of General of the Armies would have required some type of formal regulation by the Army dealing with seniority and insignia. However, the Army Judge Advocate General warned that, should MacArthur accept promotion to rank of General of the Armies, 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. The Army General Staff was also concerned because 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 advised Dwight Eisenhower that he wished to decline promotion and the bill to promote MacArthur was dropped. Supporters of MacArthur continued with further petitions, however, and the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia possesses numerous letters from 1962 through 1964 attempting to obtain MacArthur a "six-star promotion". In the letters, as well as a congressional record appendix from February 1962 (pages A864-A865), this promotion was referred to as both "six-star general" and "general of the armies."
Proponents for MacArthur's promotion even obtained a vote of neutral support from Harry Truman (meaning he would neither support nor attempt to scuttle the promotion.) The promotion attempts were ultimately scuttled by the John F. Kennedy assassination and then MacArthur's death in 1964.
Since his death, George Washington had been listed on the United States Army rolls as a retired lieutenant general. During the American Revolution, George Washington was not answerable to the Continental Congress (or its President) and actively commanded with complete authority all branches of military forces within the United States. In this respect, he had the same authority as a General of the Armies of the United States, although he never held that exact title in his lifetime.
Washington retired as a lieutenant general (three stars) and, as a result, was technically outranked by later four and five-star generals of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.
In recognition of Washington's permanent place in United States history, on 11 October 1976, he was posthumously promoted to the full grade of General of the Armies of the United States by Executive Order of President Gerald R. Ford. The promotion was authorized by a congressional joint resolution on 19 January 1976, which recommended Washington's promotion and declared that no officer of the United States Army should outrank Lieutenant General George Washington on the Army list. The full text of the legislation was:
Whereas Lieutenant General George Washington of Virginia commanded our armies throughout and to the successful termination of our Revolutionary War; Whereas Lieutenant General George Washington presided over the convention that formulated our Constitution; Whereas Lieutenant General George Washington twice served as President of the United States of America; and Whereas it is considered fitting and proper that no officer of the United States Army should outrank Lieutenant General George Washington on the Army list; Now, therefore, be it
- Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That
- (a) for purposes of subsection (b) of this section only, the grade of General of the Armies of the United States is established, such grade to have rank and precedence over all other grades of the Army, past or present.
Approved October 11, 1976.
- (b) The President is authorized and requested to appoint George Washington posthumously to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States, such appointment to take effect on July 4, 1976.
Public Law 94-479
The formal promotion order from the Army does not address six-star status; however the phrasing "such grade to have rank and precedence over all other grades of the Army, past or present" by implication clarifies the relationship of Washington's rank to Pershing's.
The United States Navy maintains one "super rank" known as admiral of the navy. The rank of admiral of the navy has only been held by one person, George Dewey, and at the time of its creation this rank was considered little more than a four-star admiral with an added honorary title. George Dewey was deceased by the time John Pershing was appointed to the rank of General of the Armies, and no formal attempt was ever made by the military to compare the two ranks.
During World War II, naval tradition declared that admiral of the navy was senior to the rank of fleet admiral; however, since there has never been any attempt to promote another officer to the rank, the relative ranking of this grade has never been confirmed.
| Pay Grade / Branch of Service | Officer Candidate |
O-1 | O-2 | O-3 | O-4 | O-5 | O-6 | O-7 | O-8 | O-9 | O-10 | O-11 (special) | O-12 (special) | O-12 (historical) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approximate insignia | (no universal insignia) | |||||||||||||
| Air Force | CDT / OT | 2d Lt | 1st Lt | Capt | Maj | Lt Col | Col | Brig Gen | Maj Gen | Lt Gen | Gen | GAF[1] | [3] | [3] |
| Army | CDT / OC | 2LT | 1LT | CPT | MAJ | LTC | COL | BG | MG | LTG | GEN | GA[1] | GAS[1] | GAS[1] |
| Marine Corps | Midn / Cand | 2ndLt | 1stLt | Capt | Maj | LtCol | Col | BGen | MajGen | LtGen | Gen | [3] | [3] | [3] |
| Navy | MIDN / OC | ENS | LTJG | LT | LCDR | CDR | CAPT | RDML | RADM | VADM | ADM | FADM[1] | AN[1] | [3] |
| Coast Guard | CDT / OC | ENS | LTJG | LT | LCDR | CDR | CAPT | RDML | RADM | VADM | ADM | [3] | [3] | [3] |
| Public Health Service | [3] | ENS | LTJG | LT | LCDR | CDR | CAPT | RADM | RADM | VADM | ADM | [3] | [3] | [3] |
| National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
[3] | ENS | LTJG | LT | LCDR | CDR | CAPT | RDML | RADM | VADM[1] |
[2] | [3] | [3] | [3] |
|
Grade is authorized by the U.S. Code for use but has not been created [2] Grade has never been created or authorized [3] |
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| W-1 | W-2 | W-3 | W-4 | W-5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Force | WO1[1] | CWO2[1] | CWO3[1] | CWO4[1] | CWO5[1] |
| Army | WO1 | CW2 | CW3 | CW4 | CW5 |
| Marine Corps | WO1 | CWO2 | CWO3 | CWO4 | CWO5 |
| Navy | WO1[1] | CWO2 | CWO3 | CWO4 | CWO5 |
| Coast Guard | WO1[1] | CWO2 | CWO3 | CWO4 | [2] |
| Public Health Service | [2] | [2] | [2] | [2] | [3] |
| National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
[3] | [3] | [3] | [3] | [3] |
|
Grade is authorized for use by U.S. Code but has not been created [2] Grade never created or authorized [3] |
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