In the US military realistically the highest rank one can aspire to is a four-star general. We do have a five-star rank, but those are generally reserved for wartime, and by that we mean World War II. Out of the nine people who've received it, seven were World War II generals.

There is a rank higher than five-star, and that's General of the Armies. It was granted posthumously to George Washington in 1976 because people realized he was technically never more than a three-star general, and it seemed awkward that someone no one's ever heard of like James Harbord held a higher rank than him. You can argue whether Washington was that amazing of a commander — some historians frown on his French and Indian War actions as well as his obsession with New York during the Revolution — but for the sake of a beloved figure, it seemed like a good gesture.

What blows my mind though is there's another person who has the rank of General of the Armies. Okay, so who holds up to Washington in American mythology? Dwight Eisenhower? Douglas MacArthur? George Marshall? No, it's Pershing. You're probably going, "Who the fuck is that?" but he was big shit during his time. He's the head of the US military during World War I. That's fine, but that wasn't whom I was expecting. Sure, at least he's not the commander during some minor war like the Spanish-American, but you'd think Eisenhower would get that rank before Pershing, especially since the US entered literally at the last minute during the First World War. So what we've got is Washington > Pershing > MacArthur. Completely surprising.