Talk:General of the Armies

Question has been raised regarding the image on this page. The Institute of Heraldry published this image and there are corresponding documents from 1945 that this was the suggested insignia if the rank had ever been reestablished. Documents from the National Archives (of which I am an employed historian) support this claim.

Then you will presumably have no problem providing a cite to the relevant documents in the National Archives? -- The Anome 08:52, 24 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

The documents from General MacArthur's service record, discussing six star rank, are in St. Louis, Missouri. They can be requested under the Freedom of Information but you would have more luck going to College Park, Maryland which has extensive material on both Chester Nimitz and Douglas MacArthur and the proposal for a six star rank during the Second World War. The image which is apparently such a controversy was published by the Institute of Heraldry some years ago. Its no longer on thier website since, as stated in the article, it was a conjectural insignia and was never made official.

The websites for the National Archives are:

http://www.archives.gov/facilities/md/archives_2.html

http://www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records.html

You can also call 314-801-0800 which is the customer service number for St. Louis

The General of the Armies
Said "I think that war is barmy"
So he threw away his gun
Now he's having lots more fun

Wasn't US Grant made a six star as General of the Armies during the Civil War? Tomtom 1509est 15 June 2004

He was made General of the Army which was considered a title. His actual rank was Lieutenant General -User:Husnock 15 Jul 2004

And even that was controversial; Grant was the first lieutenant general since Washington. But the intent was the same: to make it official that he outranked everyone else in the Army. But

"By order of senority, it was decided that General Pershing (still living when the rank of General of the Army was created in 1944) would be senior to all the newly appointed General of the Army officers. Thus, Pershing has become considered a six-star general in that he was superior to all five-star generals."

doesn't follow -- Pershing could have been considered a five-star and he'd still have had 25 years' seniority over all the WWII five-stars.

--wwoods 03:52, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)