How about a General question!
 

We were watching a movie the other night, about WW2 and they mentiond a LT. General and I tried to explain to my wife that the LT General outranked a Major General, and then I got to doubting my memory.

Dad was an Air Force officer, so we saw a lot of officers, but not many Generals.

If a one star general is a Brigadier general,
and a 2 star general is a Major general,
and a 3 star general is a Lieutenant general (wait a Lieutenant outranks a Major?)
and a 4 star general is just a general? No special term, just General?

The 5 star generals were only for WW2 to keep the British from getting upset taking orders from an equal rank officer and there are no 5 star officers now. And one bit of trivia, a 5 star general can never retire, that are active duty until death.

The only 6 star generals were George Washington and John J. Pershing and they never got the stars to wear, just an honorary thing.

So why no special name for a 4 star general?

And how did a LT outrank a major?

The burning question of the day!

I think you should keep your questions private.

the easy way is to just count the stars

but to continue in the same vein (history clogs up logical categories)....

a Rear Admiral

The plot of the movie had a phone call from a Major General, they did not even say how many stars that is. My wife asked how many stars is a major general and it got me to thinking. And thus a question to the brain trust.

Hey...he's asking a major question. :p

Then he needs some corporal punishment!

was it a Modern Major General?

I think it was Major Major.

SOUNDS like an oral discharge to me .... dON"T sneeze on me!!!

You do have the order correct. Five star generals are still a theoretical possibility. Last one was Bradley, but the president can give a fifth star to whomever he chooses.

Don't know the answer for you questions

but

mnemonic for remembering the stars is Be My Little General

What about the Surgeon General?

General manager.

That is correct and 5 star general do still happen but only under active war time campaign.

In the Army it was "Be My Little Girl". I know it sounds like a Navy thing, but it was an easy way to remember the order of stars. :D

Your best!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587732866.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_(United_States)

Silly, perhaps, but one of my Drill Instructors, Sgt Lamunyon, way back in 1975 told the platoon this: you need to remember only two: that Brigadier is the lowest and plain old General is the highest. Then just order the others by the number of syllables and you've got them all. It worked for me when my both brain and body were being tested like never before.

_

We lived on base and Hickam AFB in 1969 and 1970. As a kid, there are lawns to mow 12 months per year. One of the Generals houses that I mowed was a interesting man. Like all kids I preferred cash, but he wanted to write me a check. So he invited me into his study. On the wall was a African spear that looked cool. He said he was speared with it. He had joined the Army Air Force as a private, but he already had a private pilots license. He was a rare pilot non officer. He said he carried a letter from his General stating he was not to be arrested for impersonating an officer while wearing sergeant stripes and pilot wings. He was still arrested regularly, so they promoted him to an officer. On one mission they landed in a savanna in Africa for some reason I don't remember. The local folks did not like that and came running out throwing spears and arrows. They hurried back on board but he got stuck with a spear. Obviously he survived and was a rare individual to go from private to general. Of course the Army Air corp became the Air Force.

I was just a stupid kid and he was an amazing man to me, and dad was shocked when I told him about the story. He said he was a great officer, but not known as the friendly type.

I have a private question...

But does it Warrant our attention?

Just remember with all the generals and/or admirals, a person holding the Medal Of Honor out ranks them all. They all have to salute the medal holder.

I look at the ranking system this way:

Lieutenant Captain

Major Lieutenant Colonel Colonel

Brigadier Major General, Lieutenant General General

Almost like any other system that has evolved over centuries, it is a bit arcane.

Best
Les

I did not know that....wonder how many MOH there are today?

What about a thoroughly modern major general?

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One of my former co-workers was a vet that served in Vietnam. Great guy. He never had to see combat, as he worked in the mail office. He had a new Lieutenant fresh from officers training, but zero experience. The Lieutenant was a Barney Fife type and wanted everything 100% by the book.

The Lieutenant decided he liked his dress uniform, and he ordered all the men in the office to wear dress uniforms the next day. There was one sergeant that requested to be excused from that. The Lieutenant refused to have an exception. So the next day everyone showed up in dress uniforms. The office was all stunned to see one Sargent with a medal of honor around his neck. They they all grinned from ear to ear as the jerk Lieutenant had to salute the lowly sarge several time that day. For some reason they never had dress up day again. That sergeant was typical of many heroes and did not like to bring attention to himself, he was just waiting for his enlistment to end so he could muster out and go back to work in the civilian world.

I cheated and Googled a bit to supplement my dim knowledge. My understanding is that US military ranks are an amalgamation of British and European ranks, and have been modified to fit American tastes and needs over the centuries. What it has meant to be a "General" has evolved over the years and the US has expanded the general ranks (so to speak) a few times, particularly relating to the Civil War and WWII.

The use of combined name ranks, like Sargent-Major and Lieutenant Colonel was common in history. What we now call "Major General" was originally called "Sargent-Major General" and what we call "Lieutenant General" was originally called "Lieutenant Colonel General". Over the years the names were shortened. The US originally only had 1 star and 2 star generals, so Major General was senior to Brigadier General. When they expanded the rank to three stars, Lieutenant (Colonel) General was the natural name for the rank, which evolved to be called Lieutenant General, even though majors are senior to lieutenants.

^^^^ LOL...makes perfect sense...now I know why FUBAR was SNAFU sometimes too :D

Thanks, that makes some sense.

One of my friends growing up on base was the son of a warrant officer. That kinda blew my mind back then as well. He was above all the enlisted men, but below a commissioned officer. There are no Warrant officers in the Air Force now.

My dad even admitted the real operation of the military was done by the guys with stripes all over their arms. We just called them super sergeants. They were the ones that knew how to get something actually done.

What always amazed me when I was in the Army was how special General Officers were treated. I worked in a General Staff Section, and one of our many duties was to help organize the public and post appearances of the commanding general (Maj. GEN Hutchinson if I remember correctly) and his assistant commander - a Brigadier. As a lowly private and later on specialist, One of my duties was to take his jacket and guard it at these affairs. The staff car would park in front with all of the accompanying staff cars after. He would come in with a gang of officers around him and after him. As I would step up and ask, "Can I take your jacket, sir," a bunch of those around him would be tearing at his jacket to take it off. We sort of got to where we would give each other a faint, wry smile. My company was a post company with a wide array of sections - officers' and enlisted personnel and pay records, procurement, nuclear weapons maintenance, etc., etc. One was to maintain and assist visiting senior officers. It was interesting to hear some of the stories from the guys that maintained the houses and served them when they visited.

Important post-WWII 20th Century question: Which general has the best golf course on his base?


Important 21st Century question: Which general has the best enviro-friendly restored ecosystem on his base?

And boy does the entourage expect respect themselves. I've had the honor of helping out in a briefing to a 4-star where none of the crew was welcome. They sure weren't excited to wait in the hall for half an hour! Some seemed to have had the pleasure before but more than one was mighty crusty.

Then there were jello shots with a LtGen...

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Thanks for that vid....cleared things up fer sure :D...

I did not realize that the early advancements in officers' rank were somewhat automatic and based upon years of service...live & learn :).