Generals of the Army: Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Arnold, Bradley

Introduction

1 Introduction James H. Willbanks Five-star flag rank is the highest rank awarded within the U.S. military establishment in modern times. There were four five-star fleet admirals and five five-star Generals of the Army named during World War II and the years immediately after. To put those promotions in the proper context, it is appropriate to review the evolution of the highest ranks in the U.S. military establishment. The highest rank ever conferred in the U.S. military is General of the Armies of the United States. Only two officers in our history have been awarded that rank, George Washington and John J. Pershing , although only General Pershing actually held the rank. During the Civil War, Congress conferred the rank of General of the Army on Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, who would eventually wear four stars as the insignia of his new rank. Lieutenant General William T. Sherman, Grant’s successor as Commanding General of the Army after the war, was also appointed General of the Army on March 4, 1869. After Sherman’s death in 1891, however, the title ceased to exist as a military rank. Sherman’s successor was Lieutenant General Philip H. Sheridan . In June 1888, shortly before Sheridan’s death, Congress enacted legislation that discontinued the grade of lieutenant general and merged it with that of General of the Army. This rank was conferred on Sheridan and was discontinued when he died, while still on active duty, on August 5, 1888. Congress revived the rank of General of the Armies of the United States (which had never before been bestowed) by Public Law 66-45, approved on September 3, 1919, and awarded the title to General John J. Pershing for his wartime service. Pershing continued to wear four stars as the insignia of his rank. No other person held this rank until 1976, when President Gerald Ford posthumously appointed George Washington General of the Armies of the United States and specified that he would rank first among all officers of the Army, past and present. On December 14, 1944, the temporary rank of General of the Army was reestablished by the passage of Public Law 78-482. Army 2 James h. Willbanks Regulation 600-35 specified that Generals of the Army would wear five stars arranged in a pentagonal pattern, their points touching. The rank of General of the Army was created in wartime to give the most senior American commanders parity of rank with their British counterparts holding the rank of field marshal. The temporary rank was declared permanent on March 23, 1946, by Public Law 333, passed by the Seventy-ninth Congress. The law also created a comparable rank of Fleet Admiral for the Navy. The five five-star Generals of the Army were George C. Marshall (appointed December 16, 1944), Douglas MacArthur (appointed December 18, 1944), Dwight D. Eisenhower (appointed December 20, 1944), Henry H. Arnold (appointed December 21, 1944), and Omar N. Bradley (appointed September 20, 1950). Arnold was redesignated General of the Air Force on May 7, 1949. The first three five-star Fleet Admirals were William D. Leahy (December 15, 1944), Ernest J. King (December 17, 1944), and Chester W. Nimitz (December 19, 1944). William F. Halsey was promoted to Fleet Admiral on December 11, 1945. During the course of their careers, all the Army five-star generals served and studied at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This experience had a seminal influence on the development of their careers. Marshall, for example, observed that “Leavenworth was immensely instructive; not so much because the course was perfect—because it was not—but the associations with the officers, the reading and discussion that we did and the leadership . . . of a man like Morrison [one of his Leavenworth instructors], had a tremendous effect on me.”1 Eisenhower called his time at the Staff College “a watershed” in his career.2 Not surprisingly, Marshall, Eisenhower, and the other Army five-star generals have been enshrined in the Leavenworth Hall of Fame for their contributions in the service of the nation. In 2010, following a two-year campaign, the Command and General Staff College Foundation at Fort Leavenworth succeeded in shepherding a bill through Congress to authorize the minting of commemorative coins to honor the Army five-star generals who led U.S. forces to victory in World War II and to recognize the institution they all attended. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on October 8, 2010. The...