[Fists] The Generals of 2005

[K0HB]

As has been cussed and discussed here and on the air lately, ARRL has
petitioned FCC to reduce the number of license classes from six down to
three, namely Novice, General, and Extra. 
 
If you haven't read the entire petition (it runs somewhere around 35 pages,
each page laden with microscopic-print footnotes) you may have missed the
fact that there will actually be 5 sub-classes of General.
 
One-Star General - Post 1987 Technician given a complimentary
convenience-of-the-ARRL field promotion to General 
 
Two-Star General - Previous Conditional given humanitarian promotion to
General
 
Three-Star General - Pre 1987 Technician given posthumous promotion to
General
 
Four-Star General - General who took an actual General examination in
modern times at a VE session
 
Five-Star General - General who took an actual General examination in front
of a steely eyed FCC official in a noisy drafty government office in
downtown Fargo and had to walk uphill (both ways) through 10-foot
snowdrifts on Good Friday 1954.
 
73, de Hans, K0HB