General of the Armies

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General of the Armies of the United States, more commonly referred to as General of the Armies, is the highest military rank in the United States. The rank has been conferred three times: to John J. Pershing in 1919, as a personal accolade for his command of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I; to George Washington in 1976, as a posthumous honor during the United States Bicentennial celebrations; and posthumously to former president and Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant in 2024. The grade is sometimes described as a six-star general, as being senior to the five-star grade of General of the Army. However, no six-star insignia was ever officially created, and Pershing, the only person to be General of the Armies during his own lifetime, never wore more than four stars. Whether Pershing's grade should rank as four, five, or six stars has been a subject of debate ever since the five-star grades were created in 1944. To make Washington unambiguously the highest ranking Army...

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