Flag Admiral (United States Navy)

Flag Admiral was a proposed rank of the United States Navy during the last year of World War II. It is considered "unofficially" as a six star Admiral rank, the equivalent to the rank of General of the Armies in the United States Army.

As preparations grew for the invasion of Japan, the United States Navy Department proposed creating a six star Admiral rank equivalent to the former title of Admiral of the Navy. Chester Nimitz was to be promoted to the new rank, which would be referred to as "Flag Admiral". In the new rank, Nimitz was to serve as the Naval component commander for the invasion of the Japanese home islands.

The United States Navy went so far as to design a special insignia for the rank of Flag Admiral which made the rank obviously akin to a "six star" rank. The insignia was based on the same design proposed for the revised General of the Armies rank which was at that time under consideration for Douglas MacArthur. According to Chester Nimitz's service record:

:"The rank of flag admiral shall be displayed by the existing fleet admiral collar device with a sixth star within its center. On the sleeve shall be worn two commodore bars."

After the dropping of the atomic bomb and the effective end of any plans to invade Japan, the proposal to create a six star Admiral rank was abandoned from the U.S. Navy. The proposed insignia was never made official and the plans for its design were filed away within Chester Nimitz's service record.

An interesting footnote to the rank of Flag Admiral is that U.S. Naval tradition holds that the rank of Admiral of the Navy is considered senior to that of Fleet Admiral. The only person to ever hold the rank of Admiral of the Navy was George Dewey.

There has never been any law or regulation in the United States Navy stating how Flag Admiral and Admiral of the Navy would have related to each other nor has there has there ever been a proposal for the rank of Flag Admiral, Fleet Admiral, and Admiral of the Navy to have existed all at the same time.

ource

* United States Naval service record of Chester Nimitz, National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri