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Navy Word of the Day ~ 02/10/10
goldenpony
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 01:49 AM UTC
Ahoy Shipmates!!!

Continuing on with your Naval education we bring you another installment of MSW’s Navy Word of the Day.

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.


Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
Halfyank
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 05:16 AM UTC
Very interesting. I'd heard of Fleet Admiral, ie. 5 stars, but not Admiral of the Navy. It's also interesting how the rank insignia is only 4 stars, but the sleeve stripes are so distinctive.
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 05:52 AM UTC
Would this have made Dewey equivalent to Adm. King during WWII?
goldenpony
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 06:23 AM UTC
Dewey would have outranked King. Dewey was equal to that of a 6 star. King was only a 5 star and the CNO. So tecnhically King out ranked Nimitz. Leahy was promoted two days before King, so he in turn out ranked King. But since Leahy Chief of Staff to Roosevelt, I am not 100% sure how the Naval pecking order worked between King and himself.



To be 100% honest I did not even know about the Admiral of the Navy rank until I read about it.

md72
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 06:40 AM UTC
Lotsa fun:
Leahy was effectively the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (years b4 position existed) so King would have 'reported' to Leahy, Ignore all the Secretary of the Navy stuff...

At the time 1899 there were no 3 or 4 star generals in the Army, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan had all held 4 stars as 'General of the Army'. But the position as well as Lieutenant General (3 stars) went out of use when Sheridan died.

In all of this isn't there always a movement afoot to be sure George Washington always outranks any military officer?
goldenpony
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 07:21 AM UTC

Quoted Text



In all of this isn't there always a movement afoot to be sure George Washington always outranks any military officer?



Yes, there is a semi-active movement to make sure this does not happen. He is considered to be the highest ranking military office in American history by some. I am not sure if any official statement will ever be made by the DOD about it. In reality, unless something MAJOR happens, he will always be considered to be the American General.

md72
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 07:45 AM UTC
I'm not crazy, if Wiki is to be believed:


Quoted Text

George Washington was posthumously appointed to a new, higher grade of the rank "General of the Armies of the United States" in 1976 as part of the American Bicentennial celebrations. According to Public Law 94-479, General of the Armies of the United States is established as having "rank and precedence over all other grades of the Army, past or present," clearly making it distinctly superior in grade to General of the Army. This includes outranking Pershing's General of the Armies rank, as it is of a lower grade than that of Washington. Washington is informally called the only six-star general in the history of the United States, although when alive he was a full general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, and a three-star lieutenant general in the Regular Army during the Quasi-War with France.

goldenpony
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Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 02:21 PM UTC
Yes, I recall reading that. I do take wiki items with a grain of salt. But it is a good start.

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