 thumb|flag of the fleet admiral of the united states navy. thumb|100px|right|fleet admiral collar device, shoulder board, and sleeve stripes. fleet admiral (fadm)s:public law 78-482 pub.l. 78-482 â to establish the grade of fleet admiral for the united states navy; to establish the grade of general of the army, and for other purposes. was a five-star flag officer rank in the united states navy, and was in its time the highest rank attainable in the service. fleet admiral ranked immediately above admiral and was equivalent to general of the army and general of the air force. the fleet admiral rank was created by congress to be granted to four people during the world war ii era. there has been no authorization to use the rank since. mistakenly, many believe that the rank is still in existence but reserved for wartime use (this error even appears on some official rank charts), though no legal provisions ever existed for its use other than for the four officers appointed to it. in 1903, a special rank of admiral of the navy, was conferred upon admiral george dewey following the spanishâamerican war (1898) but it ceased to exist after his death on 16 january 1917. similar to fleet admiral, it was not a permanent addition to the rank structure and it was never reused. since fleet admiral and admiral of the navy were both one-time use ranks created at different times and not used concurrently, they have no equivalence or relationship of seniority to one another. the insignia for a fleet admiral was composed of five silver stars in a pentagonal design. worn on the service dress uniform sleeve was a gold stripe two inches wide surrounding the sleeve two inches from the cuff with four half-inch stripes placed at 1/4 inch intervals. the single gold five-pointed star, one ray down, worn above the top stripe was not part of the rank per se but indicated the wearer to be a line officer. ==fleet admirals of the united states navy== the united states rank of fleet admiral was created by an act of congress for four officers to hold on a temporary basis under pub.l. 78-482 on december 14, 1944.  the rank was made permanent for the four individual holders by  on march 23, 1946, but that law made no provision to establish the rank itself permanently. {{cite web |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq36-6.htm |title=public law 
5_star_officers Military_ranks_of_the_United_States_Navy