Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!ukma!rex!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: welty@sol.crd.ge.com (richard welty) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: US 5-star generals Summary: it takes an act of congress Message-ID: <1991Feb28.052717.10786@cbnews.att.com> Date: 28 Feb 91 05:27:17 GMT References: <1991Feb26.012607.6828@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (william.b.thacker) Organization: New York State Institute for Sebastian Cabot Studies Lines: 64 Approved: military@att.att.com From: welty@sol.crd.ge.com (richard welty) >From: carroll@cs.uiuc.edu (Alan M. Carroll) >Can anyone tell me about 5 star generals in the US? In particular, >can you only become a ***** during wartime? not exactly. the US for a long time had a thing about having high ranking military officers; we didn't want them. Washington's highest rank in his lifetime, to my knowledge, was Lieutenant General (our current 3 star rank.) the next one to come along was Grant, who was specially promoted after Vicksburg. eventually Grant was given 4 stars, and Sherman received the three star rank. when Grant retired to run for President, Sherman ascended to 4 stars, and Sheridan received 3 (there was considerable resentment, as it was felt that many Major Generals such as Meade, Thomas, etc., should have been promoted to 3 stars at the same time as Sheridan.) when Sherman retired, Sheridan received 4 stars. after Sheridan's death, such ranks were not continued, and 2 stars became the highest rank generally given. during WWI, Pershing received an unusual rank, General of the Armies; this title was not reused (my recollection was that another unusual rank was posthumuously given to Washington, but i could be wrong on this.) it became the practice that *temporary* 4 star rank would be given to the chief of staff of the army, but that the rank would revert to 2 stars on completion of the tour of duty in that job. this was the situation entering WWII. with the commencement of WWII, the US Army became so large, that 3 and 4 star ranks were reinstituted. towards the end of the war, congress (urged primarily by the Navy; the Army was somewhat cool to the idea) decided to institute 5 star ranks for Admirals and Generals; only select officers received such ranks. it was not possible for an officer with 5 stars to retire; congress had to pass a special act so that George Marshall could serve as Secretary of Defense, as active duty officers are not normally permitted to take that job, and as a 5 star general, he could not retire. > Does a ***** get demoted >after the war, or does he keep his rank? 5 stars is a rank indicating special regard, and is not something that would be revoked. >What is the relation between >the Chairman of the JCS and a *****? never been an issue. orders come from washington (although MacArthur didn't always agree.) >How many stars do Powell and >Schwarzkopf have? (The seem to only have 4 on their collars, but I'm >not sure). Thanks! 4. i believe that Omar Bradley was the last officer promoted to 5 stars, back when he was Chairman of the JCS during the Korean War. richard -- richard welty welty@sol.crd.ge.com 518-393-7228, Infologic, 1400 Balltown Road, Niskayuna, New York