TheAntiTed
Since: Apr, 2009
Jan 1st 2024 at 10:53:57 PM
•••
Yeah, the idea has always been that the US only has a military when it needs it. Post WWII has been a historical anomaly; with the perceived threat of the USSR the US basically remained in a war footing (with wartime ranks) for decades. Even with the end of the Cold War this has become the norm but the rules are still set up in places for a small peacetime military that only scales up in wartime, despite that not being the case for decades.
The addition about how the highest permanent rank in US military is still the two star rank is fascinating! (I did not know about this, although it does explain some weird things I came across in the past, e.g. whether Joe Sestak, the former PA politician and a retired navy officer, was a 3- or 2-star admiral at the end of his military career.) I wonder if this is for the same historical reason as why US Army, at its beginning, did not have a rank above major general, period (and only rarely gave anyone even a 3 star rank for much of its history, which I guess means that there weren't even 3-star positions.)
Edited by kimh27 Hide / Show Replies