How many five-star generals has the nation had?

I believe that Douglas MacArthur was one, Omar Bradley, and George Marshall. ??

Is that it, or was Eisenhower given a fifth star?

How many five-star generals has the nation had?

I believe that Douglas MacArthur was one, Omar Bradley, and George Marshall. ??

Is that it, or was Eisenhower given a fifth star?

http://www.history.army.mil/faq/FAQ-5star.htm

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"I also cook."

Army- Marshal,MacArthur, Eisenhower,Bradley
Army/Airforce- Arnold
Navy-Leahy,King,Nimitz,Halsey

Pershing I believe was 5 star but only wore 4 on his uniform.

I didn't know that had Generals in the Navy.

If I remember correctly-a five star rank is a wartime rank.

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Forum consigliere

I looked it up for Eisenhower. He was promoted to five-star rank in Nov., 1944, but resigned to sit as President in 1952. His permanent five-star rank was restored after he left office.

I believe the rank is permanent, once achieved.
It is equivalent to Field Marshal in many other armies, although they have more of those.

By the way, Eisenhower, Doolittle, and perhaps other very senior US officers were made Knight Commanders of the Order of the Bath by King George VI, but as Americans cannot be foreign nobility, it was honorary. President Reagan was also knighted, by Queen Elizabeth. His British equivalent and strong associate in helping to end the Cold War, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was also so honored, becoming Dame Thatcher. (A Dame is the female version of a knight.)

T-Star

Going for the 5 stars not the branch

Ironically, when the 5 star rank was created, it created the rank of 6 star as Washington and Pershing hold a rank higher than all others. This is going off of memory, I'm sure someone will look it up.

Annnnnd, Hap Arnold has another distinction, anybody know what?

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

He is the only U.S. military commander to hold a 5-star rank in more than one service. He was designated as supreme commander of the Air Force and its first 5-star general after it was broken off from the Army following WWII. He already held a 5-star rank in the Army.

That's why I hang around here. (I'm not the only full of useless information )

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

As I remember 5 star general rank carried the title of "General of the Army" or "Fleet Admiral". Not sure about Hap Arnold's title. I agree with a previous poster that it was equivalent to Field Marshall.

I believe one reason for the five star rank was to put our top generals / Admirals on the same footing as out allies top military.

LTC

FYI: George Washington (posthumously) and Gen John Pershing were authorized to wear six five point stars. The rank was called "General of The Armies". Pershing thought that many stars were too tacky so he only wore four.
The five star rank of General of The Army/General of The Air Force/Admiral of The Fleet was spcified during WWII to put our General officers on a par with Field Marshals of allied nations. The original plan was to have our own Field Marshal rank with five five-point stars with the first to be ranked as such to be Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen George Marshall. He was against it, thinking (correctly) that calling him "Marshal Marshall" would sound rather stupid.
In reality, this wartime-only rank has not really been that popular and when the last "five-star" General (Omar Bradley) passed away, the rank pretty much died with him. I doubt it will ever be ressurected. However, I think that the current Chairman of The Joint Chiefs, as senior Flag Officer, should always wear five stars to distinguish his/her position. In addition, I'd like to see a new five star rank; "Commandant of The Marine Corps" instead of the four star rank. During times of war as well (personal).

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The Last Standing Knight

Yeah, but I had to let something out so I could remember this important information.

Nine is correct, AFAIK.

The Marshall Marshall thing is a good story , but I think the more operative one is that there was a deliberate intent not to have Gen. Pershing outranked while he was still alive, thus the distinction between General of the Armies and General of the Army.

I always found it interesting that a FIELD Marshall (by defintion) earned that rank by either leading a successful campaign or by besieging and taking a defended fortress. Did any of our five-star officers earn their fifth star as a result of field operations? I can't think of any who did, but I do not recall when the Admirals received their promotions.

Eisenhower, for example, received his fifth star shortly before the Battle of the Bulge, and thus was hardly "commanding, in the field." He subsequently neary entirely turned over tactical control of the Bulge operation to Patton, to whom he even joked that every time he (Eisenhower) got another star, he got attacked! Bradley received his fifth star long after he had left the European Theatre, and thus the rank was purely honorary, rather than a matter of necessity of command, was it not? (Even as Chief of Staff, had he had the five-star rank, he still would not have out-ranked MacArthur.)

Anyone able to shed any light on this?

General Arnold was a General of the Army. The Air Force and Marines have never had a five-star officer.

Not really able to shed anymore light other than to say the senior 5 star was Leahy. They were all promoted to 5 star in December 1944 starting around the 15th of the month and then one each day. I don't really remember where MacArthur fell, but I know he wasn't senior to Leahy, Marshall and King.

And to clarify, Arnold was promoted to 5 star "General of the Army" and then when the Air Force was created as a separate service he resigned and was appointed "General of the Air Force", a five star rank and the only man to ever hold it.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

George Dewey was awarded the rank of Admiral of the Fleet for his victory at Manila Bay. That rank is considered to be 6 stars, though neverformally confirmed as such.
No insignia for General of the Armies was ever
formally adopted, Pershing wore 4 gold stars when he was Chief of Staff of the Army. AFAIK no
"Marshal's Baton" was ever proposed for US officers award 5 star rank-Marshals of the Soviet Union do not carry a baton either.
Hitler greatly cheapened the rank of Field Marshal in the Wehrmacht. In 1936 he promoted Von Blomberg to Field Marshal for his role in expanding the German Armed Forces and casting off "the shackles of Versailles", in 1938 he made Goering a Field Marshal as a consolation prize for not making him Von Blomberg's sucessor, in 1940 he made 12 Field Marshals-9 from the Army, 3 from the Luftwaffe-for the roles in the Western Offensive. One of those promoted was Keitel, who was basically an office manager.
Bradley was promoted to 5 star rank on September 22, 1950, he was the last so honored.
Over the years there have been proposals to give the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs 5 star rank, they usually go nowhere.

You are absolutely correct about Dewey. He was put at the same level as Washington and Pershing. I actually have a color photo somewhere of Pershings 4 Gold Stars, the only time that was ever done.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

He certainly did, thus forever, I suppose, taking the "Field" out of Field Marshall. The icing on the cake was the ridiculous promotion of Paulus, which fooled no one, including Paulus himself, and he repaid the fool by surrendering. Of course by that time, Hitler had no credibility with anyone, except probably only the most fanatic of Nazis.

i worked with a woman named Halsey and never put 2 and 2 together until one day she was telling me about her husband went to West Point and his dad was some big shot in the Army and his uncle was a big shot in the Navy.. he was Bull Halsey's nephew.. small world

Bradley led troops in the field.

I think Bernard Montgomery had finished leading troops in battle by the time he became a Field Marshal. But he may have been one by the time he proposed Operation Market-Garden.

Does anyone recall?

Bradley, as I said earlier, received his fifth star in Washington in 1950, so he did not get the promotion as a direct result of "commanding, in the field," though he certainly did command in the field, in N. Africa, Sicily, and Europe.

Montgomery got his promotion 1 September 1944, as his duty shifted to commanding 21st Army Group and Eisenhower took over overall control of the European campaign. It presented a problem, as the U.S. felt it had to up the ante for Ike, lest he be outranked by his subordinate commander.

Montgomery's promotion could be fairly said to have been obtained in the traditional method, since he certainly commanded a successful campaign, most notably the one that ousted the Italian and German Armies from North Africa, and of course he participated in the conquest of Sicily.