Six-star rank in US armed forces


In the United States Armed Forces, a six-star rank is a proposed rank immediately superior to a five-star rank, to be worn by the General of the Armies and Admiral of the Navy.

History

On 21 January 1955, a draft resolution was proposed to the U.S. Senate to authorize the then-U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to appoint Douglas MacArthur, then a five-star General of the Army, to the elevated six-star rank of "General of the Armies of the United States in recognition of the great services to his country", with "such appointment to take effect as of the seventy-fifth anniversary of his birth, January 26, 1955." The proposal had little chance of passing and was never voted on.
The rank of General of the Armies had previously been granted, in 1919, to active-duty four-star General John J. Pershing. The markings used to identify Pershing's new ranking as higher than general was a bank of four gold stars.
The rank of Admiral of the Navy was created for George Dewey in 1903, out of recognition for his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish–American War, and the date of rank was made retroactive to 1899. In 1944, the U.S. Navy declared Dewey's rank to be senior to that of the newly created five-star rank of Fleet Admiral.
In 1976, as part of commemorations for the U.S. Bicentennial, General George Washington was posthumously promoted to the rank of General of the Armies of the United States. Although the law did not actually specify the number of stars, some U.S. newspapers and members of Congress described this as a six-star rank. His appointment had been to serve as "General and Commander in Chief of the Army of the United Colonies".

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