Although President Gerald Ford signed the law on October 11, 1976, no further action was taken to promote Washington until February 1978, when a military driver studying for a promotion board asked his passenger, General Donn A. Starry, whether Washington now outranked Pershing. The specialist five's question to a four-star general triggered a chain of inquiries that caused the Department of the Army to issue on March 13, 1978, posthumously promoting Washington to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States, effective from the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1976. When the question was asked again in 1992, the U.S. Army Institute of Heraldry considered Pershing's rank to be equivalent to five stars and junior to Washington.