General officer brigadier general is brigadier, which is not always considered by these armies to be a general officer rank, although it is always treated as equivalent to the rank of brigadier general for comparative purposes. As a lieutenant outranks a sergeant major; confusion often arises because a lieutenant is outranked by a major. Originally the serjeant major was, exclusively, the commander of the infantry, junior only to the captain general and lieutenant general. The distinction of serjeant major general only applied after serjeant majors were introduced as a rank of field officer. Serjeant was eventually dropped from both rank titles, creating
General of the Armies Bradley in 1981, Congress considered a special recognition to commemorate the passing of the last of the Second World War five star officers. Six weeks after Bradley's death, the House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to the Institute of Heraldry and the Army requesting to know the feasibility of promoting Bradley to the rank of six star general. A brief was issued which repeated much of the concerns raised in 1964 when Douglas MacArthur had been considered posthumously for the rank. The Institute of Heraldry released two insignia designs for the rank of the General of the Armies which