five-star admiral

The President’s chief of staff, William D. Leahy–the five-star admiral who presided over meetings of the Joint Chiefs of Staff–noted in his diary seven weeks before the bombing of Hiroshima: “It is my opinion that at the present time a surrender of Japan can be arranged with terms that can be accepted by Japan and that will make fully satisfactory provision for America’s defense against future trans-Pacific aggression.”

After the war, in semi-retirement as an adviser to the Navy Department, Ernie King, five-star admiral of the fleet, remained a power in Washington, fighting the Navy's war against integration of the services, never retreating from his belief that despite the A-bomb the Navy as a fighting and landing team should be the nation's first force.

After the war, Nimitz, now one of four five-star admirals,* succeeded Admiral Ernest King as Chief of Naval Operations in Washington until 1947, when he returned to his adopted home in the San Francisco Bay Area to serve the University of California as a regent and his nation as a naval adviser; a five-star admiral is never retired.

The Spanish embassy in Washington announced that a special guest would be on hand to help with the annual Columbus Day celebrations: Christopher Columbus, 26, the 17th Duke of Veragua, a lieutenant in the Spanish navy who also holds the honorary rank of Five-Star Admiral of Spain, and a special title granted to the direct descendant of the discoverer, the Admiral of the Ocean Sea.

Two two-star Admirals and one five-star Admiral hauled down their flags and were piped ashore to big, roomy civilian jobs.