Our lacing set for a Fleet Admirals’ sleeve rank insignia comprises five 30-inch strips of gold lacing, one of them measuring 2 inches in wide and another four a half-inch in width. The thickest lacing is placed so that its bottom is two inches from the end of the sleeve; subsequent narrow stripes are spaced a half-inch apart from each other above the large stripe.
The other component of a Fleet Admiral’s sleeve insignia is a sleeve device positioned 1/4-inch above the topmost stripe, centered between the front and rear creases of the sleeve. A single five-pointed gold star s the most common sleeve device for Admirals, regardless of their grade, but lower-ranking Admirals (particularly Rear Admirals O-7) who serve in U.S. Navy Corps (Medical, Dental, Supply, etc.) would wear the symbol of the Corps in which they serve. A Fleet Admiral would never wear anything but a star as part of his or her sleeve insignia.
Please note that we sell these sleeve devices—five-pointed stars for Line / Unrestriced Officers, Corps emblems for Officers in Staff Officer positions—in our Navy Sleeve Devices Sections.
Prior to 1944, the sight of a Fleet Admiral’s insignia—a single 2-inch stripe near the bottom of both sleeves of a dress-uniform jacket, with four 1/2-inch stripes placed above them in half-inch increments—would likely have come only in fever dreams of three-star Admirals imagining a newly announced title after a great triumph. That’s because, until December 1944, the U.S. Navy had no Fleet Admirals, and in fact the rank might have never been created if not for the fact that many of the Allied commanders had been appointed to five-star ranks. Simply, the establishment of a Fleet Admiral rank was essentially the Navy’s way to ensure its top commanders had the levels of authority as their British and French counterparts. Four Fleet Admirals were appointed that December, but no more have been named since the last of the original four, Chester Nimitz, passed away in 1966.