Hierarchy

The unofficial Army & Navy Journal let a fat Navy cat out of a gold-braided bag. The Journal found that the bill now before Congress to give the Navy's top men more rank and more gold on their sleeves (TIME, Feb. 14) would likely be followed by another. Result, if both were passed: not one new brand of U.S. admiral, but two.*

The bill to come would make Admirals Chester W. Nimitz and William F. Halsey Admirals of the Fleet (equals British Admiral of the Fleet).

The Journal's real biffy was the discovery that the rank laid out for COMINCH Ernie King and Admiral William D. Leahy, the President's Chief of Staff, is six-star "Admiral of the Navy" (equals nothing short of Heaven). Reportedly Ernie King is already designing a new sleeve insigne and pondering a way to avoid the Milky Way effect on his starstudded shoulder boards by substituting a wreath, or something.

The Journal's conclusion: The British are not likely to take all this lying down. "In the interest of continuing intimate relations with the British Navy we must not forget that command of the sea always has been its aim and boast."

Other experts of pomp and protocol were no less worried at the thought of a rank clash between a nation limited to republican symbols and one which could always bring crown and scepter to the hierarchal front.

More interesting to fighting men than all this bauble-bubble was the news in Washington last week that a reorganization of the armed forces would soon be a live issue in Congress. Planned: a unified department of national defense with Under Secretaries of War, Navy and Air. Corollary: a separate air force.

* An army counterpart (of which the Army reputedly takes a dim view) would make Chief of Staff George Marshall and Air Forces' "Hap" Arnold five-star generals (equals British field marshal).

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