Who were the five star military officers of the United States Military during WW2?
I know Eisenhower was. MacArthur got his 5th Star while he was in the Pacific. Those are the only two I’m sure of. MacArthur also got a Medal of Honor. Great soldier.
I believe there were five.
Hap Arnold, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, George Marshall and (I’m drawing a blank - anyone?).
What about the Navy and Air Force?
I’ve given you the unabridge list and a link to the detailed explanation. There are four Army, one Air Force, no Navy, no Marines, and no Coast Guard.
Here ya’ go.
Arnold, Bradley, Eisenhower, MacArthur and Marshall
And the Fleet Admirals (Five-Star):
William Daniel Leahy
Ernest Joseph King
Chester William Nimitz
8 all together.
According the the Navy’s site, there were four Fleet Admirals during WWII (Nimitz, Leahy, King and Halsey).
Thaks you guys, I posted this question as bet with a friend that any question asked would be reasonably answered within ten minutes.
I have won a dollar.
ph3a4 the power of the Straight Dope message board.
Perilous it sometimes is to trust what you find on the Web.
The site brad_d linked contains:
The site I linked has this:
I didn’t list Halsey because his apparent date of promotion was after the War had ended. The Arlington National Cemetery Site also gives December 1945 as the date of his ascension to that rank.
The Air Force didn’t exsit as a separate service until after the war. Gen. Hap Arnold was the ranking general in the Army Air Forces aka the Army Air Corps.
Indeed it is - thanks for doing the legwork I didn’t. I assumed that a US Navy website wouldn’t make an error like that, but it certainly appears that they did.