Highest U.S. Military rating (rank for officers).?

In reporting today that Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody was promoted to the rank of four stars, first female officer to attain that, both the U.S. media and the BBC, who should know better, called it the highest rank. Perhaps they were being simplistic, but my recollection is different. There is the rank of General of the Army (or AF, MC, etc,) that is five stars, used only in war time, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also a five star officer out-ranking all other military officers and subordinate only to the president as C in C. Why would they ignore these facts?

Dewayne

The last officer to be promoted to General of the Army was Omar Bradley, in 1950. Barring a World War II-size military buildup, we're not likely to have another one.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff currently is Admiral Mike Mullen. Not Admiral of the Navy Mullen. On the left of ADM Mullen's link is a column of links; if you hover over CJCS history, another menu will open up with; on that menu, if you hover over "former chairmen," you'll get a menu of former chairmen. If you step through that menu, you'll discover that the only one who was a 5-star flag officer was Omar Bradley.

If we're going to resort to this sort of nitpicking, though, don't forget that President Ford also promoted George Washington to 6 stars!

wolfhound

The last 5-star we had was GOA Omar Bradley who died in 1981. So for the media to report that a 4-star is the highest rank one can achieve is correct.

The USMC, being a part of the U.S. Navy, has never had a 5-star General.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is a 4-star.

Probably because those ranks are not in use? O-10 is *currently* the highest attainable rank, so for a news article, it could hardly be called an oversight that they didn't take a paragraph to explain General of Army / Fleet Admiral.

edit: there was once an Admiral of the Navy, but the rank has only been held by Admiral Dewey, from 1899-1917. FADM was held by William D. Leahy, Ernest J. King, Chester W. Nimitz and William F. Halsey

C.G. Rase

The hightest rank is not General of the Army (5 stars) but General of the Armies (6 stars)

Check this out...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_of_the_Armies

Bob Loblaw

For the most part, they are correct. The General of the Army is a 5-Star rank and is the second highest. The highest is also a 5-Star rank, General of the Armies, but it's only been conferred twice, one was posthumously to Washington the other during WWI. 5-Star ranks are special and not currently active.

Wolf

5 Stars is an honorary rank only. There are only 4 stars in reality for army, Navy and Air Force. The Marines as being a part on the Navy have only 3 stars allowed.

The 5th star is an honorary (Not true rank) to denote the one currently the over the rest who all sh-t hits when the president is pissed off. Hence 4 stars is it but the 5th is given to denote the one in charge of the rest. No extra pay ever.

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