The nine men that earned the highest rank! Five star generals of the U.S. Military
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In late 1944 the United States Congress passed a bill that established the army rank of five-star general and five-star fleet admirals.
It became necessary for the United States to establish a five-star rank to eliminate the incompatibility of U.S. commanders charged with commanding Allied officers of a technically higher ranking.
When the United States created the rank, the Army promoted four service men to Generals of the Army: Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur and Henry “Hap” Arnold.
The Navy promoted Ernest King, Chester Nimitz and William Leary to fleet admirals. A fourth, William Halsey was promoted in 1945 and five years later, Omar Bradley became the ninth and final five-star general.
William D. Leahy
Born in Iowa in 1875 and in 1889 he moved with his family to Ashland, Wisconsin. He attended high school in Ashland and while playing football he broke his nose, but his family lacked the money to get it fixed, so it remained crooked for the rest of his life. Leahy was the first person to be awarded the rank of a five-star fleet admiral.
He graduated from the Naval Academy with the class of 1897. That class had five members that received the rank of four-star. No other class has had more than four members awarded four stars. He was the highest-ranking member of the military during World War II.
In December of 1944, he received the rank of fleet admiral, and, after Roosevelt’s death, continued to serve alongside President Harry S. Truman, ultimately helping lead the U.S. to victory. He said that the atomic bomb would never detonate. But changed his mind after testing showed it would.
Leahy died in 1959 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery along side his wife, Louise (1876-1942).
George C. Marshall, Jr.
Born on December 31, 1880 George C. Marshall held many high military posts and in 1939 he became Chief of Staff and in his first week on the job, he organized the largest military expansion advising President Roosevelt to issue an executive order to expand the regular army from 189,000 to 235,000 men and the National Guard to 235,000 reservists. Although, President Roosevelt could not immediately act because the United States Congress still favored isolationism.
During World War II, many of the top generals were chosen or recommended by Marshall.
After the war, he became Secretary of State and then Secretary of Defense and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 becoming the only army general ever to be so honored.
After a series of strokes, Marshall died on October 16, 1959. Although he was entitled to official proceedings, Marshall preferred simplicity, so he received a special military funeral that dispensed with many of the usual activities.
He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with his two wives.
Ernest J. King
Ernest J. King was promoted to fleet Admiral in December of 1944, becoming the second Navy officer to receive the fifth star.
He was the Navy’s second-most senior officer during World War II. Born in Lorain, Ohio and was the valedictorian of his high school class of 1897 and graduated fourth in his class at Annapolis. He served for 55 years of active duty.
He directed the United States Navy’s operations, planning, and administration and was a member of the Joint Chief’s of Staff.
He died of a heart attack on June 25, 1956, having been in poor health for a number of years. He is buried at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis along side of his wife who passed away in 1969.
Douglas MacArthur
“Old Soldiers never die, they just fade away.” Five Star General Douglas MacArthur said in his farewell address to congress after being fired by President Harry Truman.
MacArthur was probably one of most widely know generals of the United States, having served in the east before and during World War II and then in the Korean War. He became the Army’s youngest Major General at the age of 45.
He was born in Little Rock, attended the Milwaukee High School of the Arts was the valedictorian of the West Texas Military Academy and graduated at the top of his West Point class of 1903. He was not only a five-star general as well as a Field Marshall to the Philippine army. He recalled, “ I learned to ride and shoot even before I could read and write.”
MacArthur was nominated three times for the Medal of Honor and received it for his service in the Philippines campaign. This made him, along with his father, Arthur MacArthur, Jr. as the first father-son to be awarded the medal.
Harry Truman would write later that he fired MacArthur “because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the president.”
He is interned at the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk along with his second wife, Jean, who passed away in 2000 at the age of 101.
Henry “Hap” Arnold
Henry “Hap” Arnold was born at Gladwyne, Pennsylvania on June 25, 1886 and enrolled at West Point at the age of 17, graduating with the class of 1907.
With an interest in aviation, Arnold was taught to fly by the Wright Brothers, becoming one of the first military aviators. His skills allowed him to teach other pilots at the Signal Corps’ aviation school, and he even appeared as a pilot double in two silent films in 1911.
Arnold played a key role in the deployment of USA AF resources throughout the Second World War. Thanks to passion and dedication to aviation, the air arm of the Army grew from 22,000 with 3,900 aircraft to 2.5 million men and 75,000 planes! For his dedication, he was named a five-star general in both the Army and Air Force.
All three of his sons were graduates of West Point and all reached the rank of Colonel. Arnold died on January 15, 1950 in California and is interned at Arlington National Cemetery. Two of his sons are buried near him at Arlington National Cemetery.
Dwight D. (Ike) Eisenhower
Dwight David Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas on October 14, 1890 where his parents set aside specific times at breakfast and dinner for daily family Bible reading.
Eisenhower is most renowned for his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II. But his legacy extends past his military service.
He would graduate from West Point in the middle of the class of 1915, the class that became known as “the class the star fell on,” because 59 members eventually became general officers. After Germany signed the surrender papers officially ending World War II in Europe, Eisenhower send the following message announcing the end of the war. The message said: “The mission of this Allied Forces was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7, 1945.”
On December 20, 1944, Eisenhower was promoted to the rank of five-star general. As WWII came to an end, he made sure the crimes committed by the Germans were never forgotten, ordering his men to take extensive photographs and documentation of the notorious concentration camps.
He was elected as the 34th president of the United States, defeating Adlai Stevenson, twice by landside victories. His campaign slogan was “I like Ike”.
Ike and Mamie had two sons, “Icky”, died at age three from scarlet fever and John who graduated from West Point on D-Day and he became a brigadier general. John’s son, David, married President Richard Nixon’s daughter, Julie, in 1968. Camp David is named after David Eisenhower.
Eisenhower became the only president to hold the five-star rank. Over his two terms, he worked to obtain a truce during the Korean War and aided in mitigating the Cold War. He worked to get the interstate highway system approved and built, which is formally called the “Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.”
Despite his extensive military service, Eisenhower was a life-long advocate for peace. He passed away on March 28, 1969 at the age of 78. He is interned along with his wife, Mamie, at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and boyhood home in Abilene, Kansas.
William Frederick “Bull” Halsey, Jr.
William “Bull” Halsey was born on October 30, 1882 in Elizabeth, N.J. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1904 and served aboard several battleships.
During WWI, Halsey commanded the USS Shaw and following the first war he command the aircraft carrier Saratoga and later the Yorktown. During this period, he also earned his Naval Aviator’s Wings, becoming the oldest person to do so at 52 years old.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Halsey was in command of the aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise and was in charge of Carrier Division 2. After leading a series of raids against the Japanese, he was appointed commander of the South Pacific Force. In this position, he led the Americans during the Guadalcanal Campaign and fighting in the Solomon Islands.
When the fighting moved to the Central Pacific, Halsey was promoted to commanding officer of the Third Fleet and in December of 1945 he was promoted to Fleet Admiral.
“There are no great men, just great challenges which ordinary men, out of necessity, are forced by circumstances to meet.”—Halsey
He faced a court of inquiry after he sailed his fleet into a typhoon. That inquiry found that though Halsey had committed an error of judgment in sailing the fleet into the heart of the typhoon, it stopped short of recommending sanctions.
He suffered a heart attack while vacationing in New York on August 16, 1959. He is interned at Arlington National Cemetery alongside of his wife, Frances who passed away in 1968 at the age of 81. His parents are buried nearby.
Chester William Nimitz
Chester Nimitz as born in Fredericksburg, Texas on February 24, 1885 and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in seventh place among the 114 members of the class of 1905.
He spoke fluent German and in 1913 he studied diesel engine plants in Nuremberg, Germany.
He had command of a destroyer that ran aground in the Philippines in 1908 and received a letter of reprimand.
During WWI, Nimitz served throughout the war and beyond as an aide for a number of Navy officials. He eventually was appointed commander-in-chief, Pacific Fleet in 1941, serving in the position throughout the war. Among his most notable engagements were the Battle of the Coral Sea and the crucial Battle of Midway, which saw the Japanese lose several important naval vessels, including the loss of four aircraft carriers.
Nimitz received his fifth-star on December 19, 1944. Despite being a decorated fleet admiral, he wasn’t even given his high school diploma until after his promotion. He was a signatory to the surrender terms in Japan aboard the USS Missouri in September of 1945. This was followed shortly after he replacing Ernest King as chief of naval operations.
After continued service in the Navy and with the UN, Nimitz spent much of his time involved in his local San Francisco community, including raising funds for the Naval Historical Foundation, with whom he helped restore the Japanese battleship Mikasa. A few months after suffering a stroke, he passed away, just four days shy of his 81st birthday.
He is interned along with his wife at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, CA.
Omar Nelson Bradley
Omar Nelson Bradley was born at Clark, Missouri on February 12, 1893 and was the last person to be awarded the rank of the five-star General of the Army. He was urged by his Sunday school teacher to apply for the U.S. Military Academy, graduating from West Point in 1915 alongside Dwight D. Eisenhower, and was the longest serving member of the armed forces servicing for 69 years, 8 months and 7 days.
Bradley said: “Ours is a world of nuclear giants, and ethical infants. We know more about war than about peace, more about killing than we know about living.”
Bradley didn’t see combat during the First World War, as he and the 14th Infantry Regiment were tasked with protecting copper mines in the Pacific Northwest. In the Second World War, now a brigadier general he was sent to North Africa to serve as George Patton’s deputy commander.
By the end of WWII, Bradley had commanded 43 divisions, which equaled 1.3 million men, the largest body of American soldiers to ever serve under a single commander.
After the war he lead the Veterans Administration, served as the first chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff, an advisor during the Korean war and to President Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam war.
He died on April 8, 1981 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery along with his two wives.
Still get paid!
As a five-star general, they are active members of the service until they die and will have received full pay for the rest of their lives. As for MacArthur, he received $20,000 annually for pay and allowances as a General of the Army, which is about $166,000 in today money. Plus MacArthur served as Chairman of the Board for Remington Rand and received some $68,000 annually. That is over a half a million dollars in today’s money.