General of the Army, or less formally five-star general, is historically the second most senior rank in the United States Army. (The most senior rank being General of the Armies of the United States, which has only been conferred twice.) The rank has been held by only five officers. It is equivalent to the rank of Field Marshal. Military rank, or simply rank, is a system of grading seniority and command within military organizations. ... The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... In the United States Army military hierarchy, General of the Armies is traditionally considered a rank superior to a five-star general. ... Note: This article is about the military usage of the word marshal. For other usages, see the end of this article. ...

It is also a military rank in Russia (and the Soviet Union), France and some other countries, where it has slightly different equivalency.

United States

On July 25, 1866, the U.S. Congress established the grade of "General of the Army" for Ulysses S. Grant, and later appointed William T. Sherman (on 4 March 1869) and then Philip H. Sheridan (on 1 June 1888, just weeks before he died) to the rank. On 3 September 1919, John J. Pershing was named General of the Armies of the United States, and held the rank until he died, in 1948. In all of these cases, the generals wore four stars as their insignia, except between 1872 and 1888, when Sherman and Sheridan wore two stars with the arms of the United States in between. Pershing was authorized to specify his own insignia, but chose to wear the standard four stars of a full general. General of the Army Insignia File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 159 days remaining. ... 1866 is a common year starting on Monday. ... The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ... Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was an American Civil War general and the 18th (1869–1877) president of the United States. ... Portrait of William Tecumseh Sherman by Mathew Brady William Tecumseh Sherman (February 8, 1820 – February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, and author. ... March 4 is the 63rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (64th in leap years). ... 1869 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Philip Sheridan Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888), a military man and one of the great generals in the American Civil War. ... June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining. ... 1888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... September 3 is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years). ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Photo portrait from May 1917 New York Times John Joseph Black Jack Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) was a soldier in the United States Army. ... In the United States Army military hierarchy, General of the Armies is traditionally considered a rank superior to a five-star general. ... 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ...

The five-star rank was created by Public Law 482 of the 78th Congress, passed on 14 December 1944, first as a temporary rank, then made permanent 23 March 1946 by an act of the 79th Congress. This was done to have American officers with ranks equivalent to the field marshals of Britain, to reduce friction over who was allowed to give orders to whom. (The acts also created a comparable rank of Fleet Admiral for the Navy.) ... December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... March 23 is the 82nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (83rd in Leap years). ... 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... ... Note: This article is about the military usage of the word marshal. For other usages, see the end of this article. ... A Fleet Admiral is a generic term for a senior admiral in command of a large group of ships, comprising a Fleet or, in some cases, a group of Fleets. ...

Following the establishment of the United States Air Force in 1947, the equivalent rank of General of the Air Force was established. The only person to hold the rank of General of the Air Force was Henry H. Arnold. Seal of the Air Force. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... In the United States Air Force, General of the Air Force is the highest rank, equivalent to a five star General. ... Henry Harley Arnold (June 25, 1886 - January 15, 1950), often referred to by the nickname Hap, was an American pilot, commander of the US Army Air Corps from 1938, commander of the US Army Air Forces from 1941 until 1945 and the first General of the Air Force in 1949. ...

A General of the Army has the pay grade of O-11.

The insignia consists of five stars in a pentagonal pattern, with points touching. The rank still exists today, although nobody has held it since General Bradley died in 1981. 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Officers who held the rank

The five officers who have held the rank of General of the Army to date are:

Note the careful timing of the first four appointments. The dates of rank for the corresponding five-star admirals are 15, 17, and 19 December 1944, to establish both a clear order of seniority and a near-equivalence between the services. George C. Marshall George Catlett Marshall (December 31, 1880–October 16, 1959), an American military leader and statesman, was born into a middle-class family in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... MacArthur landing at Leyte Beach in 1944. ... December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Order: 34th President Vice President: Richard Nixon Term of office: January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961 Preceded by: Harry S. Truman Succeeded by: John F. Kennedy Date of birth: October 14, 1890 Place of birth: Denison, Texas Date of death: March 28, 1969 Place of death: Washington, D.C. First... December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Henry Harley Arnold (June 25, 1886 - January 15, 1950), often referred to by the nickname Hap, was an American pilot, commander of the US Army Air Corps from 1938, commander of the US Army Air Forces from 1941 until 1945 and the first General of the Air Force in 1949. ... December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Gen. ... September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... A Fleet Admiral in the United States Navy is an Admiral considered the equivalent of the United States Armys General of the Army. ...

See also List of US military leaders by rank Only those with a rank of 5 stars or above are listed. ...

Soviet Union and Russia

In Imperial Russia, the rank did not exist. The rank of General of the Army (Russian: генерал армии, general armii) was first established in June 1940 as the highest rank for Red Army generals, inferior only to the Marshal of the Soviet Union. In the following 51 years the USSR created 133 Generals of the Army, 32 of whom were later promoted to the rank of Marshal. Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of Russian history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Red Army flag The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the Workers and Peasants Red Army, (Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya in Russian), the armed forces organised by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. ... Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko in dress uniform The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union (Russian: Marshal Sovietskogo Soyuza, Маршал Совет́ского Союза) was in practice the highest military rank of the Soviet Union. ... Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Timoshenko in dress uniform The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union (Russian: Marshal Sovietskogo Soyuza, Маршал Совет́ского Союза) was in practice the highest military rank of the Soviet Union. ...

The rank was usuallly given to senior officers of the Ministry of Defence and General Staff, and also to meritorious military district commanders. From the 1970s, it was also frequently given to the heads of the KGB and the Ministry of the Interior. Events and trends Although in the United States and in many other Western societies the 1970s are often seen as a period of transition between the turbulent 1960s and the more conservative 1980s and 1990s, many of the trends that are associated widely with the Sixties, from the Sexual Revolution... The Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti  listen, or KGB, (Russian: Комите́т Госуда́рственной Безопа́сности; English: Committee for State Security), was the name of the main Soviet Security Agency and intelligence agency, as well as the main secret police agency from March 13, 1954 to November 6, 1991. ...

Soviet Generals of the Army include Ivan Chernyakhovsky (the youngest Soviet World War II front commander, killed in East Prussia), Aleksei Antonov (head of the General Staff in the closing stages of WWII, awarded the Order of Victory), Issa Pliyev (an Ossetian-born WWII commander who played a major role in the Cuban missile crisis) and Yuri Andropov (who held the rank as head of the KGB). Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky, (Cherniakhovsky), 1906 - 1945, Russian General of the Army (the youngest ever to have this rank), twice Hero of the Soviet Union, brilliant commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, died from wounds received outside Königsberg at age 39. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Russia-related stubs | People stubs | Military of the Soviet Union ... The Order of Victory (ru: Орден Победы) is the highest military decoration in the Soviet Union, and one of the rarest orders in the world. ... Issa Alexandrovich Pliyev (Russian: Исса Александрович Плиев) (November 12, 1903 - ?) was a Soviet military commander, Army General (1962), Double Hero of the Soviet Union (4. ... Map of Ossetia Ossetia is a region in the northern Caucasus Mountains, inhabited by the Ossetians. ... The Cuban Missile Crisis was a tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. ... Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (Ю́рий Влади́мирович Андро́пов), (June 2 (O.S.) = June 15 (N.S.), 1914 - February 9, 1984) was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the CPSU from November 12, 1982 until his death just sixteen months later. ...

In the Air Force, Artillery, Tank Forces, Engineer Forces, and Signal Troops, the rank of General of the Army was not used, as the corresponding grades of Marshal of the Air Forces, Artillery, etc. had existed since 1943.

The contemporary Russian Army retains the rank of General of the Army and it is still frequently used. After the dissolution of the USSR the ranks of Marshal of the Air Forces etc. were abolished, and the most senior officers of these branches may also now hold the rank of General of the Army. In russian, word army means armed forces in general. ...

The corresponding naval rank is Admiral of the Fleet, which has been used in both the Soviet and Russian Navies, although conferred much more rarely. Admiral of the Fleet is a supreme naval position that has existed both in historical navies and several modern day navies of the 21st century. ... The Soviet Navy (Russian: Военно-морской флот СССР, Voyenno-morskoy flot SSSR, literally Naval military forces of the USSR) was the naval arm of the Soviet armed forces. ... Russian Navy Jack Russian Navy Ensign The Russian Navy (Russian: Военно Морской Флот (ВМФ) - Voyenno Morskoy Flot (VMF) or Military Maritime Fleet) is the naval arm of the Russian armed forces. ...

Before 1943, Generals of the Army wore five stars on their collar patches (petlitsy). Since 1943, they have worn four stars on their shoulder straps. From 1974 to 1997 they wore a single large star with a Ground Forces emblem, but in 1997 the four stars were restored. 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Reef. ...

See also Russian military ranks. The following is a table of Ground Force, Air Force and Naval ranks of the Military of Russia. ...

France

In France, Générals d'Armées wear five stars, but are equivalent to the rank of General in other armies; the commander of the Parisian sector wears a sixth star, regardless of actual rank, and Maréchals de France wear seven, being the closest approximation to a General of the Army or Field Marshal, although the position is a distinction, not a rank. General is a military rank, in most nations the highest rank, although some nations have the higher rank of Field Marshal. ... Note: This article is about the military usage of the word marshal. For other usages, see the end of this article. ...

Other countries

The rank also exists (on paper at least) in Indonesia and Liberia. In Taiwan, Chiang Kai-Shek has been the only five-star general in the history of the Republic of China, although the rank is formally known as General Special Class. Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a Chinese military and political leader who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925. ... The Republic of China (Traditional Chinese: 中華民國; Simplified Chinese: 中华民国; Wade-Giles: Chung-hua Min-kuo, Tongyong Pinyin: JhongHuá MínGuó, Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó) is a multiparty democratic state that is de facto composed of the island groups of Taiwan, the Pescadores, Quemoy, and the Matsu. ...