List of United States four-star officers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are currently 42 active duty four-star officers in the uniformed services of the United States: 14 in the Army, 10 in the Navy, 12 in the Air Force, 4 in the Marine Corps, 1 in the Coast Guard, and 1 in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
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[edit] Statutory limits
U.S. law explicitly limits the total number of three- and four-star officers that may be on active duty at any given time. The total number of active duty general or flag officers is capped at 302 for the Army, 216 for the Navy, 279 for the Air Force, 80 for the Marine Corps.[1] For the Army, Navy, and Air Force, no more than 15.7% of the service's active duty general or flag officers may have more than two stars, and no more than 25% of those may have four stars.[2] This corresponds to 11 four-star Army generals, 8 four-star Navy admirals, 10 four-star Air Force generals and 3 four-star Marine generals.
Several of these slots are reserved by statute. For the Army and the Air Force, the Chief of Staff and the Vice Chief of Staff are both four-star generals; for the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Vice Chief of Naval Operations are both four-star admirals; for the Marine Corps, the Commandant and the Assistant Commandant are both four-star generals. In addition, the Commandant of the Coast Guard[3] and the Assistant Secretary for Health [4] are both four-star admirals in their respective services.
There are several exceptions to these limits allowing more than allotted within the statute. A four-star officer serving as Chief of Staff to the President, or as Chairman or Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff does not count against his service's general officer cap. An officer serving in one of several joint positions does not count against his service's four-star limit, but he does count against his service's limit on officers with more than two stars; these positions include the commander of a unified combatant command, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, and the deputy commander of U.S. European Command (but only if the commander is also the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe).[5] Officers serving in certain intelligence positions are not counted against either limit, including the Director of Central Intelligence.[6] The President may also add three- and four-star slots to one service if they are offset by removing an equivalent number from other services. Finally, all statutory limits may be waived at the President's discretion during time of war or national emergency.[7]
On September 14, 2001, the President declared a national emergency and invoked his authority to waive all statutory limits on the number and grade distribution of general and flag officers on active duty.[8] On this basis, a number of senior officers in the Middle East have been appointed in excess of the normal limits, including the four-star commanders of the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters, and the temporary authorization for their positions will expire shortly following the termination of the national emergency.
[edit] List of active duty four-star officers
[edit] Joint Chiefs of Staff
| Position | Incumbent | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) | Gen Peter Pace | USMC |
| Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (VCJCS) | ADM Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr. | USN |
[edit] Unified Combatant Commands
| Position | Incumbent | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) | ADM William J. Fallon | USN |
| Commander, U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR) | GEN Bantz J. Craddock | USA |
| Commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) and Supreme Allied Commander, Transformation (SACT) | Gen Lance L. Smith | USAF |
| Commander, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) | Gen Victor E. Renuart Jr. | USAF |
| Commander, U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) | ADM Timothy J. Keating | USN |
| Commander, U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) | ADM James G. Stavridis | USN |
| Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) | GEN Bryan D. Brown | USA |
| Commander, U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) | Gen James E. Cartwright | USMC |
| Commander, U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) | Gen Norton A. Schwartz | USAF |
[edit] Other joint positions
| Position | Incumbent | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) | GEN Dan K. McNeill | USA |
| Commander, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) | GEN Burwell B. Bell III | USA |
| Commanding General, Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNF-I) | GEN David H. Petraeus | USA |
| Deputy Commander, U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) | GEN William E. Ward | USA |
| Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) | Gen Michael V. Hayden | USAF |
[edit] U.S. Army
| Position | Incumbent |
|---|---|
| Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army (CSA) | GEN Peter J. Schoomaker |
| Chief of Staff (designate) of the U.S. Army (CSA) | GEN George W. Casey, Jr. |
| Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army (VCSA) | GEN Richard A. Cody |
| Commanding General, U.S. Army, Europe (USAREUR) | GEN David D. McKiernan |
| Commanding General, U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) | GEN Charles C. Campbell |
| Commanding General, U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) | GEN Benjamin S. Griffin |
| Commanding General, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) | GEN William S. Wallace |
[edit] U.S. Navy
| Position | Incumbent |
|---|---|
| Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) | ADM Michael G. Mullen |
| Vice Chief of Naval Operations (VCNO) | ADM Robert F. Willard |
| Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command (USFLTFORCOM) | ADM John B. Nathman |
| Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe (USNAVEUR) | ADM Henry G. Ulrich III |
| Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) | ADM Gary Roughead |
| Director, Naval Nuclear Propulsion | ADM Kirkland H. Donald |
[edit] U.S. Air Force
| Position | Incumbent |
|---|---|
| Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force (CSAF) | Gen T. Michael Moseley |
| Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force (VCSAF) | Gen John D.W. Corley |
| Commander, Air Combat Command (ACC) | Gen Ronald E. Keys |
| Commander, Air Education and Training Command (AETC) | Gen William R. Looney III |
| Commander, Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) | Gen Bruce Carlson |
| Commander, Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) | Gen Kevin P. Chilton |
| Commander, Air Mobility Command (AMC) | Gen Duncan J. McNabb |
| Commander, Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) | Gen Paul V. Hester |
| Commander, U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) | Gen William T. Hobbins |
[edit] U.S. Marine Corps
| Position | Incumbent |
|---|---|
| Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps (CMC) | Gen James T. Conway |
| Assistant Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps (ACMC) | Gen Robert Magnus |
[edit] U.S. Coast Guard
| Position | Incumbent |
|---|---|
| Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard | ADM Thad W. Allen |
[edit] U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
| Position | Incumbent |
|---|---|
| Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) | ADM John O. Agwunobi |
[edit] Retirement
4-star officers must retire after 5 years in grade or 40 years of service, whichever is later,[9] and all general and flag officers must retire the month after their 64th birthday.[10] However, the Secretary of Defense can defer a 3- or 4-star retirement until the officer's 66th birthday and the President can defer it until the officer's 68th birthday.
For example, Admiral William J. Fallon was born on December 30, 1944; placed on active duty in 1967; and promoted to admiral in October, 2000. Ordinarily, he would have been expected to retire in 2007, after 40 years of service. Instead, he was appointed commander of U.S. Central Command on March 16, 2007, and presumably will remain on active duty until completing the standard three-year term as combatant commander in March, 2010, nine months before his 66th birthday.
Because ranks above two stars are temporary appointments that expire if the bearer does not occupy a designated position of importance, maintaining 3- or 4-star rank is a game of musical chairs; if not appointed to a position bearing that rank, an officer must retire within 60 days[10] or face demotion. If the administration wants to save an officer for a position not yet vacant, it must park him in an appropriate temporary berth. Several positions on the Joint Staff (Director, Joint Staff; Director, J-3; Director, J-5) are reserved for promotable 3-stars. 4-stars being held in reserve might be assigned as their service's vice chief of staff or to U.S. Southern Command, which has seen several recent commanders reassigned to more prominent positions after comparatively short tenures (Wesley Clark, appointed SACEUR after 12 months; Peter Pace, appointed Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after 12 months; Bantz Craddock, appointment as SACEUR announced after 20 months).
For example, General Wesley Clark (born 1944, entered service 1966, promoted general 1996) was retired in 2000 at the age of 56 after only 34 years of service and 4 years in grade, in order to free up a 4-star position for General Joseph Ralston (entered service 1965, promoted general 1995), whose term as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff expired in 2000.
Four-star officers typically step down from their posts up to 60 days in advance of their official retirement dates. Officers retire on the first day of the month, so once a retirement month has been selected, the relief and retirement ceremonies are scheduled by counting backwards from that date by the number of days of accumulated leave remaining to the retiring officer. During this period, termed transition leave or terminal leave, the officer is considered to be awaiting retirement but still on active duty.
For example, General Michael Hagee was relieved as Commandant of the Marine Corps on November 13, 2006, and held his retirement ceremony the same day, but remained on active duty until his official retirement date on January 1, 2007.
[edit] Notes
- ^ [1] 10 USC 526. Authorized strength: general and flag officers on active duty.
- ^ [2] 10 USC 525. Distribution of commissioned officers on active duty in general officer and flag officer grades.
- ^ [3] 14 USC 44. Commandant; appointment.
- ^ [4] 42 USC 207. Grades, ranks, and titles of commissioned corps.
- ^ [5] 10 USC 604. Senior joint officer positions: recommendations to the Secretary of Defense.
- ^ [6] 10 USC 528. Officers serving in certain intelligence positions: military status; exclusion from distribution and strength limitations; pay and allowances.
- ^ [7] 10 USC 527. Authority to suspend sections 523, 525, and 526.
- ^ [8] Proclamation 7463 of September 14, 2001: declaration of national emergency by reason of certain terrorist attacks.
- ^ [9] 10 USC 636. Retirement for years of service: regular officers in grades above brigadier general and rear admiral (lower half).
- ^ 10 USC 1253. Age 64: regular commissioned officers in general and flag officer grades; exception.
