General of the Army ( United States ) General of the Army " ( GA ) " is a five - star general officer and is the second highest possible rank in the United States Army . A special rank of General of the Armies , which ranks above General of the Army , does exist but has only been conferred twice in the history of the Army . A General of the Army ranks immediately above a general and is equivalent to a Fleet Admiral and a General of the Air Force ; there is no established equivalent five - star rank in the other four uniformed services ( Marine Corps , Coast Guard , PHSCC , and NOAA Corps ) . Often referred as a " five - star general , " the rank of General of the Army is reserved for war - time use only and is not currently active in the U . S . military . Post - American Civil War era . On July 25 , 1866 , the U . S . Congress established the rank of " General of the Army of the United States " for General Ulysses S . Grant . When appointed General of the Army , Grant wore the rank insignia of four stars and coat buttons arranged in three groups of four . Unlike the World War II rank with a similar title , the 1866 rank of General of the Army was a four - star rank . This rank held all the authority and power of a 1799 proposal for a rank of " General of the Armies " even though Grant was never called by this title . Unlike the modern four - star rank of general , only one officer could hold the 1866 – 1888 rank of General of the Army at any time . After Grant became President , he was succeeded as General of the Army by William T . Sherman , effective March 4 , 1869 . In 1872 , Sherman ordered the insignia changed to two stars with the coat of arms of the United States in between . By an Act of June 1 , 1888 , the grade was conferred upon Philip Sheridan , who by then was of failing health . ( The cover of Sheridan ' s autobiography was decorated with four stars within a rectangle evocative of the four - star shoulder strap worn by Grant . ) The rank of General of the Army ceased to exist with Sheridan ' s death on August 5 , 1888 . World War II era . The second version of General of the Army was created by Pub . L . passed on 14 December 1944 , first as a temporary rank , then made permanent 23 March 1946 by an act of the 79th Congress . It was created to give the most senior American commanders parity of rank with their British counterparts holding the rank of Field Marshal . The acts also created a comparable rank of Fleet Admiral for the Navy . This second General of the Army rank is not considered comparable to the American Civil War era version . The insignia for General of the Army , as created in 1944 , consisted of five stars in a pentagonal pattern , with points touching . The five officers who have held the 1944 version of General of the Army are : The timing of the first four appointments was coordinated with the appointment of the U . S . Navy ' s five - star Fleet Admirals ( on 15 , 17 , and 19 December 1944 ) to establish both a clear order of seniority and a near - equivalence between the services . The US Army did not introduce a rank of Field Marshal . The United States traditionally uses the term Marshal for a senior law enforcement officer , particularly the US Marshals , as well as formerly for state and local police chiefs . In addition , giving the rank the name " Marshal " would have resulted in one of the officers being designated as " Field Marshal Marshall , " which was considered undignified . Dwight Eisenhower resigned his Army commission on May 31 , 1952 to run for president . After he served two terms , his successor , John F . Kennedy , signed on March 23 , 1961 , which returned Eisenhower to Active Duty of Regular Army in grade of General of the Army dated back to December 1944 . This rank is today commemorated on the signs denoting Interstate Highways as part of the Eisenhower Interstate System , which display five silver stars on a light blue background . Henry H . " Hap " Arnold , a General in the Army , was the Chief of Staff of the Army Air Forces when he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army . After the United States Air Force became a separate service on September 18 , 1947 , Arnold ' s rank was carried over to the Air Force , as all Army Air Force personnel , equipment , etc . also carried over . Arnold was the first and , to date , only General of the Air Force . He is also the only person to have attained a five - star rank in two branches of the US Armed Forces . Modern use . There have been no officers appointed to the rank of General of the Army since Omar Bradley . The rank of General of the Army is still maintained as a rank of the U . S . military , and could again be bestowed , during a time of war , pending approval of the United States Congress . Current U . S . military policy is that General of the Army , General of the Air Force , and Fleet Admiral are ranks only to be used when a commander of U . S . forces must be equal to or of higher rank than commanders of armies from another nation . In the 1990s , the U . S . Department of Defense gave indication that the office of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would possibly one day be a position worthy of five - star rank . At the time of Omar Bradley ’ s promotion it was specifically emphasized that the promotion was done in recognition of his World War II and post - war service , not as a result of his appointment as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . At one time , before his tenure as Secretary of State , there had been some talk of promoting General Colin Powell , who had served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War , to that rank . General of the Armies . The rank of General of the Armies is considered senior to General of the Army , and has been bestowed on only two officers in history , John J . Pershing , in 1919 for his services in World War I , and George Washington for his service as the first Commanding General of the United States Army . When the five - star rank of General of the Army was introduced , it was decided that General Pershing ( still living at the time ) would be superior to all the newly appointed Generals of the Army . Then - Secretary of War Henry L . Stimson was asked whether Pershing was therefore a six - star general . Stimson stated : Section 7 of Public Law read : " Nothing in this Act shall affect the provisions of the Act of September 3 , 1919 ( 41 Stat . 283 : 10 U . S . C . 671a ) , or any other law relating to the office of General of the Armies of the United States . " George Washington was posthumously appointed to the rank of General of Armies in 1976 as part of the American Bicentennial celebrations . According to , " 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 " . During his lifetime , Washington was appointed a 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 . Equivalent ranks . Twin services . The rank of General of the Army is equivalent to the U . S . Air Force ' s rank of General of the Air Force and the U . S . Navy ' s rank of Fleet Admiral . None of the other uniformed services of the United States has an equivalent rank . Foreign armies . In the British Army , the equivalent rank would be Field Marshal , although that rank is currently only ceremonial . Some other countries , such as France and Russia , would use the rank of Marshal .