More Brass

Army & Navy brass hats, who had been nervously fingering their temporary wartime stars ever since V-J day, were feeling a little starchier last week. In the last-minute rush of closing, Congress had authorized a nearly 400% increase in the number of permanent generals and admirals. Since 1939 the Navy had rated only 86 permanent flag officers, the Army 71 generals. Under the new setup the Navy would have 195, the Army 184 and the new, autonomous Air Force 150.

But even so all the wartime bigwigs would not hold onto their brass. Still in the process of weeding out the excess stars, the Army (including its air arm) last week had 500 generals on the rolls, the Navy 400 admirals.

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