General of the Air Force
| General of the Air Force |
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|---|---|
Five-star General of the Air Force insignia
(1949 - 1993) |
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Rank flag of a General of the Air Force.
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| Country |
 United States
|
| Service branch |
 United States Air Force
|
| Abbreviation | GAF |
| Rank | Five-star |
| NATO rank | OF-10 |
| Non-NATO rank | O-11 |
| Formation | December 21, 1944 |
| Next higher rank | General of the Armies |
| Next lower rank | General |
| Equivalent ranks | |
The General of the Air Force (abbreviated as GAF) is a five-star general officer rank and is the highest possible rank in the United States Air Force. General of the Air Force ranks immediately above a general and is equivalent to General of the Army in the United States Army and Fleet Admiral in the United States Navy. The rank has only been held once in history, by General Henry H. Arnold, who served as head of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.
1944–1947
The term "General of the Air Force" was first informally used in 1944 after General Henry H. Arnold was promoted, along with other senior World War II American officers, to the rank of General of the Army. Arnold was at that time head of the United States Army Air Forces which had, for all intents and purposes, become its own branch of service in all but name. To differentiate Arnold between the other five star generals in the regular U.S. Army (such as Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur), Arnold was commonly referred to as "General of the Air Force Arnold" in all but official correspondence in which his rank was listed as "General of the Army (USAAF)".
1947–1949
On September 18, 1947, the United States Air Force was founded as a separate branch of service. For the first few months of its existence, U.S. Air Force ranks were identical to the Army, and Air Force service members continued to wear the olive drab U.S. Army Air Force uniforms. In early 1948, the Air Force slightly changed some of the rank titles to include codifying Air Force warrant officer positions as well as specifying that the five star general rank within the Air Force would be known thereafter as "General of the Air Force". On 7 May 1949, under Public Law 58 of the 81st Congress, Henry Arnold's official U.S. Air Force rank was changed from General of the Army to General of the Air Force.
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