Entries in the following list of four-star generals are indexed by the numerical order in which each officer was promoted to that rank while on active duty, or by an asterisk (*) if the officer did not serve in that rank while on active duty in the U.S. Army. Each entry lists the general's name, date of rank,[a] active-duty positions held while serving at four-star rank,[b] number of years of active-duty service at four-star rank (Yrs),[c] year commissioned and source of commission,[d] number of years in commission when promoted to four-star rank (YC),[e] and other biographical notes.[f]
Commander in Chief, U.S. Strike Command/U.S. Commander in Chief, Middle East, Africa South of the Sahara, and South Asia (USCINCSTRIKE/USCINCMEAFSA), 1963–1966.
Commander in Chief, U.S. Strike Command/U.S. Commander in Chief, Middle East, Africa South of the Sahara, and South Asia (USCINCSTRIKE/USCINCMEAFSA), 1966–1969.
Commander in Chief, U.S. Strike Command/U.S. Commander in Chief, Middle East, Africa South of the Sahara, and South Asia (USCINCSTRIKE/USCINCMEAFSA), 1969–1972.
(1951–) Served 12 years in the enlisted ranks before receiving his commission in 1981. First Army National Guard officer to achieve the rank of general.
In May 1798, Washington was commissioned as a lieutenant general in the United States Army by his successor as president, John Adams, to command the provisional army being raised for the undeclared Quasi-War with France. In March 1799, the United States Congress elevated the lieutenant generalcy to the rank of "General of the Armies of the United States", but Adams thought the new rank infringed on his constitutional role as commander in chief and never made the appointment.[148] Washington died later that year, and the rank lapsed when not mentioned in the Military Peace Establishment Act of 1802.[149] He was promoted posthumously to the rank in 1978, after it was reestablished for him as part of the 1976 United States Bicentennial celebrations.[150]
1866–1941
Civil War and aftermath
The Civil War-era generals of the Army (Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan) with President Abraham Lincoln, March 1865.
The rank of General of the Armies was revived in 1866, with the name "General of the Army of the United States" to reward the Civil War achievements of Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general of the United States Army (CGUSA).[151] As with the prior rank and that of lieutenant general revived for Grant in 1864, the holder was authorized to command the armies of the United States, subject to presidential authority.[152] Grant vacated his commission to become president in March 1869, and the lieutenant general of the Army, William Tecumseh Sherman, was promoted to succeed him as general. The grade was abolished after Sherman's retirement in February 1884, in accordance with legislation passed in 1870.[153][154]
After Sherman's retirement, the ban on new appointments to the grade of general was relaxed twice. In March 1885, Grant was out of office, bankrupt, and dying, so Congress authorized the president to reappoint him to the rank and full pay of general on the retired list.[7][155] Congress made a similar exception in June 1888 to promote the ailing lieutenant general of the Army, Philip Sheridan, by discontinuing the grade of lieutenant general and merging it with the grade of general until Sheridan's death two months later.[156][157]
Since there was only one active duty four-star general in the Army during this period, the grade was interchangeably referred to as "general", "the General", and "the General of the Army", a title not to be confused with the five-star grade of general of the Army created in 1944.[158]
World War I
The rank flag of General of the Armies John J. Pershing, presented to him in 1922.
In 1917, the rank of general was recreated in the National Army, a temporary force of conscripts and volunteers authorized for the duration of the World War I emergency. To give American commanders parity of rank with their Allied counterparts, Congress allowed the president to appoint two emergency generals in the National Army, specified to be the chief of staff of the Army (CSA), Tasker H. Bliss and later Peyton C. March; and the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (CG AEF) in France, John J. Pershing.[159] When Bliss reached the retirement age of 64 and stepped down as chief of staff, he was reappointed emergency general by brevet to serve alongside full generals from allied nations as the U.S. military representative to the Supreme War Council.[160]
All emergency grades expired at the end of the war, so in July 1919, eight months after the armistice, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to reward March and Pershing by making them both permanent generals, with Pershing senior to March.[161][162] Pershing's promotion was authorized on 3 September 1919, just in time for the secretary of war to hand him his new commission when he returned from Europe.[16] Congress and Pershing both opposed March's promotion, having clashed with him during the war, so he reverted to major general alongside Bliss when their emergency grades expired on 30 June 1920.[163][164] Both were restored to their wartime ranks of general on the retired list in 1930.[165]
Interwar
Pershing succeeded March as Army chief of staff in the permanent grade of general, and served from 1921 to 1924.[166][ao] The grade lapsed with his retirement, leaving the rank of major general as the highest available grade in the peacetime Army, and his two-star successors, John L. Hines and Charles P. Summerall, outranked by their four-star Navy counterpart, the chief of naval operations.[167] The temporary rank of general was reauthorized for the chief of staff in 1929, elevating Summerall.[19][ap] In 1940, special legislation advanced Hines to general on the retired list as the only living former chief of staff never to wear four stars.[28]
1941–1991
World War II and aftermath
Omar Bradley was made a permanent general in 1948 as a one-time personal honor, with full active-duty pay for life.
The United States entered World War II on 7 December 1941 with one Army general, chief of staff George Marshall, authorized.[166] Legislation enacted in 1933 and amended in 1940 allowed the president to appoint officers of the Regular Army, the Army's professional military component, to higher temporary grades in time of war or national emergency.[169][aq] As with the National Army emergency generals, these appointments expired after the end of the war, although postwar legislation allowed officers to retire in their highest active-duty rank.[171] On 19 December 1941, the Senate confirmed Douglas MacArthur to be the first temporary general in the Army of the United States, the reconstituted draft force, as he fought the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.[172][173]
Three new Army generals were appointed over the next two years. Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed temporary general in February 1943, to command Allied forces in North Africa and later Europe;[174]Henry H. Arnold in March 1943, as commanding general of Army Air Forces and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;[175] and Joseph W. Stilwell in August 1944,[176] as commander of the China Burma India Theater and chief of staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Arnold were further promoted to the temporary five-star grade of general of the Army in December 1944, made permanent in March 1946.[26][177]Malin Craig, Marshall's predecessor as Army chief of staff, was recalled to active duty in his four-star grade to run the War Department's Personnel Board.[178]
More temporary generals were appointed to command postwar occupation forces in Germany and Japan, as well as the stateside Army commands. Omar Bradley, who had commanded the Twelfth Army Group—the bulk of American forces on the Western Front—also received a permanent promotion to general as a one-time personal honor, with full active-duty pay for life.[179][ar] This was superseded by Bradley's promotion to general of the Army while serving as the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in 1950.[177][181] By the official termination of the World War II national emergency in April 1952, the Army had eight four-star generals.[182][as]
Cold War
Senior leadership at the Army Commander's Conference, 20 October 1983. Generals Richard E. Cavazos (third from left) and Roscoe Robinson Jr. (third from right) are the first Hispanic and first African-American four-star generals in the Army.
The modern grade of general was established by the Officer Personnel Act (OPA) of 1947, which authorized the president to designate positions of importance and responsibility to carry the grade ex officio, to be filled by officers with the permanent or temporary grade of major general or higher.[171] The total number of positions allowed to carry the grade was capped at 3.75 percent of the total number of general officers on active duty, which worked out initially to five generals for the Army.[171][at] The four-star grade caps evolved into Section 525 of Title 10 of the United States Code, which was codified in 1956.[184] The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the office of which was created in 1949, was exempted from the caps.[185]
Escalating global commitments during the Cold War created more generals, both at home and abroad; a majority were appointed under renewed national emergency authority in excess of grade caps.[171] Besides the JCS chairman and Army chief of staff, the most prestigious Army-dominated positions of the era were the NATO supreme allied commander in Europe (SACEUR);[186] the commander of multinational and U.S. forces in Korea (UNC/FECOM, later USFK); and until 1973, the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam (USMACV).[187] At the height of the Vietnam War in 1971, the Army had 17 four-star generals.[188]
Ann E. Dunwoody (right), the first woman to become a four-star general in the Army, is sworn into her new rank by Army chief of staff George W. Casey Jr. (back facing camera) on 14 November 2008.
The distribution of four-star Army generals remains broadly similar to that of 1947, with a statutory chief and vice chief of staff (CSA, VCSA);[193][194] stateside commands for readiness, materiel, and training; overseas component commands; and joint duty positions that are exempted from grade caps.[195][196] Among the latter are the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS); the NATO supreme allied commander in Europe (SACEUR);[197] the unified combatant commanders, including the statutory Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) and Special Operations Command (USSOCOM);[198][199] and during the War on Terror, the wartime theater commanders in Iraq (MNF-I, later USF-I) and Afghanistan (ISAF, later RSM).
The chief of the National Guard Bureau (CNGB) joined the joint pool after being raised to four-star grade in January 2008.[200] In November of the same year, Ann E. Dunwoody became the first woman to achieve the rank of general in the Army, as well as in any armed service.[201] Similarly, in 1997, Eric Shinseki became the first Asian-American four-star general in the Army.[123] In September 2012, Frank J. Grass became the first Army National Guard officer to attain the rank of general, to relieve his Air Force predecessor as CNGB.[202]
By the end of 2020, the Army had 18 four-star generals on active duty, exceeding the 17 four-star generals it had at the height of the Vietnam War, its previous peak.[205][206]
The following list of Congressional legislation includes major acts of Congress pertaining to appointments to the grade of general in the United States Army.
Authorized promotion on the retired list or posthumously to highest grade held during World War I, with no increase in retired pay (Tasker H. Bliss, Peyton C. March).
Authorized president to designate, subject to Senate confirmation, Army officers to have the rank of general while assigned to positions of importance and responsibility.
Capped Army positions with ranks above major general at 15 percent of the total number of general officers serving on active federal military duty, of which not more than 25 percent to carry the rank of general.
Authorized president to designate positions of importance and responsibility to carry the grade of general, to be assigned from officers on active duty in any grade above colonel, subject to Senate confirmation, who revert to their permanent grade at the end of their assignment unless it was terminated by
assignment to another position designated to carry the same grade,
up to 180 days of hospitalization, or
up to 90 days prior to retirement [reduced to 60 days in 1991 (105 Stat.1354)].
Capped, except during war or national emergency, Army officers in grades above major general at 15 percent of all general officers on active duty, of whom not more than 25 percent to serve in the grade of general.
Authorized three- and four-star officers to retire in the highest grade held on active duty, at the discretion of the president and subject to confirmation by the Senate, with no time-in-grade requirement [changed in 1996 to certification by secretary of defense and three-year time-in-grade requirement (110 Stat.292)].
Capped Army officers in the grade of general at 7, exempting from caps the chief of the National Guard Bureau and up to 20 generals assigned to joint duty [joint-duty cap repealed in 2016, effective December 31, 2022 (130 Stat.2100); caps changed in 2021 to 8 Army generals and 19 joint-duty generals (134 Stat.3563)].
^Simpson, Brooks D. [@BrooksDSimpson] (11 October 2024). "Someone got promoted!" (Tweet). Retrieved 12 October 2024 – via Twitter. [with scanned attachment copy of April 19, 2024, U.S. Department of Defense] Memorandum for the Secretary of the Army; Subject: Posthumous Advancement on the Retired List; . . . General Ulysses S. Grant . . . to the grade of General of the Armies . . .
^Act of August 7, 1947 [Officer Personnel Act of 1947] (61 Stat.888). Official Army Register, 1 January 1947. Vol. 1. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1 January 1947. p. 1617 – via Internet Archive.
^O'Brien, F. William (January 1959). "General Clark's Nomination as Ambassador to the Vatican: American Reaction". The Catholic Historical Review. 44 (4): 421, 439. JSTOR25016458.
^Greene, Joseph I. (November 1951). "Report to the Members". United States Army Combat Forces Journal. 2 (4). Association of the United States Army: n1 – via Internet Archive. "GEN Wade Hampton Haislip". Military Hall of Honor. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
^Symons, Arthur (May 1955). "Association's Journal". United States Army Combat Forces Journal. 5 (10). Association of the United States Army: 4. Symons, Arthur (December 1955). "Report from your AUSA CP". United States Army Combat Forces Journal. 6 (5). Association of the United States Army: 54.
^"Comment for the Combat Forces – New President". United States Army Combat Forces Journal. 2 (11). Association of the United States Army: 12. June 1952. Symons, Arthur (May 1955). "Association's Journal". United States Army Combat Forces Journal. 5 (10). Association of the United States Army: 4.
^"Statement by the Press Secretary, June 27, 2002". The White House (George W. Bush Archive) (Press release). Washington, D.C.: Office of the White House Press Secretary. 27 June 2002. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
^Act of March 3, 1799 (1 Stat.752). Andrews, C. C., ed. (1856). "Lieutenant General Scott's Case". Official Opinions of the Attorneys General of the United States. Vol. VII. Washington, D.C.: Robert Farnham. pp. 422–424 – via Google Books.
^ ab"Army Pay — Retired General (4 Comp. Gen. 317)". Decisions of the Comptroller General of the United States. Vol. 4. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1925. p. 317 – via Google Books.
^Acts of March 3, 1799 (1 Stat.752), and July 25, 1866 (14 Stat.223).
^"Conscription Order #1" (Document). U.S. National Archives Record Group 165, College Park, Maryland: Office of the War Department, Records of the Personnel Division (G-1). 1941.{{cite document}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^ abDates of rank are taken, where available, from the U.S. Army register of active and retired commissioned officers, or from the World Almanac and Book of Facts. The date listed is that of the officer's first promotion to general.
^ abPositions listed are those held by the officer when promoted to general. Dates listed are for the officer's full tenure, which may predate promotion to four-star rank or postdate retirement from active duty.
^ abThe number of years of active-duty service at four-star rank is approximated by subtracting the year in the "Date of rank" column from the last year in the "Position" column. Time spent between active-duty four-star assignments is not counted.
^ abThe number of years in commission before being promoted to four-star rank is approximated by subtracting the year in the "Commission" column from the year in the "Date of rank" column.
^ abNotes include years of birth and death; awards of the Medal of Honor, Congressional Gold Medal, Presidential Medal of Freedom, or honors of similar significance; major government appointments; university presidencies, executive leadership of major military non-profit organizations, or equivalents; familial relationships with other four-star officers or significant government officials such as U.S. Presidents, cabinet secretaries, U.S. Senators, or state governors; and unusual career events such as premature relief or death in office.
^Commissioned general in the Continental Army, 15 June 1775; resigned, 23 December 1783; commissioned lieutenant general in the U.S. Army, 3 July 1798; posthumously promoted to General of the Armies, 11 October 1976, with date of rank 4 July 1976.[1][2][3][4]
^Resigned, 4 March 1869, to serve as President; reappointed general and placed on the retired list, 3 March 1885; posthumously promoted to General of the Armies, 19 April 2024.[7][8]
^Appointed emergency general as chief of staff of the Army, 6 October 1917; retired as chief of staff, 18 May 1918; brevetted general as member of the Supreme War Council, 20 May 1918.[11][12][13]
^ abReverted to major general upon expiration of wartime legislation, 1 July 1920; advanced to general on the retired list, 21 June 1930, as highest grade held during World War I.[14]
^Appointed emergency general as commander of U.S. forces in France, 6 October 1917; promoted to General of the Armies, 3 September 1919.[11][16]
^Appointed ex officio general as chief of staff of the Army, 23 February 1929; reverted to major general, 20 November 1930; retired as general, 31 March 1931.[19][20]
^Reverted to major general, 1 October 1935; retired as general, 31 December 1937; recalled as major general, 26 July 1941; promoted to lieutenant general, 27 July 1941; promoted to general, 18 December 1941, with rank from 16 September 1936; promoted to general of the Army, 18 December 1944; rank made permanent, 11 April 1946; restored to active list, 9 July 1948; relieved of all commands, 11 April 1951.[22]
^Retired as general, 31 August 1939; recalled as general, 26 September 1941.[24]
^Promoted to general of the Army, 16 December 1944; rank made permanent, 11 April 1946; retired as general of the Army, 28 February 1947; restored to active list, 1 March 1949.[25][26]
^Advanced to general on the retired list, 15 June 1940, as former chief of staff of the Army.[28]
^Promoted to general of the Army, 20 December 1944; rank made permanent, 11 April 1946; retired as general of the Army, 7 February 1948; recalled as general of the Army, 16 December 1950; resigned, 18 July 1952, to run for President; reappointed general of the Army, 30 March 1961.[30]
^Promoted to general of the Army, 21 December 1944; rank made permanent, 11 April 1946; retired as general of the Army, 30 June 1946; appointed general of the Air Force, 7 May 1949.[31]
^Retired as major general, 31 January 1945; recalled 1 February 1945; promoted to general, 5 March 1945; advanced to general on the retired list, 12 July 1946; retired, 20 July 1946.[32]
^Terminated appointment as general in Army of the United States, 29 April 1946; retired as major general, 30 April 1946; advanced to general on the retired list, 4 June 1948.[33]
^Retired as general, 31 August 1963; recalled as general, 1 September 1963.[60][61]
^Retired as general, 1 December 1959; recalled as general, January 1960.[65]
^Retired as general, 1 September 1965; recalled as general, 1 February 1968.[72]
^Retired as general, July 1970; recalled as general, August 1970.
^Retired as general, December 1974; recalled as lieutenant general, June 1977; retired as general, July 1981.
^Transferred from Army National Guard, 18 October 1920; retired as major general, 31 December 1946; recalled as major general on the retired list, 1 January 1947; promoted to lieutenant general, 23 June 1956; promoted to general, 16 February 1970, with date of rank 23 December 1969; relieved, 9 April 1973; retired as general, 10 April 1973.[81]
^Retired as general, 1 August 1973; remained White House chief of staff as civilian until 1974; recalled as general, September 1974.
^Graduated from Pennsylvania Military College, which was reorganized as a civilian institution in 1972 and is now Widener University.
^Retired as general, November 2000; recalled as general, August 2003.
^Relieved, August 2005, and retired as lieutenant general.[128]
^Reverted to major general, March 2011; retired as lieutenant general, 13 November 2012.[132]
^On at least one occasion, Washington styled himself "Captain-General and Commander in Chief of the Forces of the Thirteen United Colonies", in his proclamation on the occupation of Boston on 21 March 1776.[145]
^The Comptroller General of the United States ruled in 1924 that the offices of "general" (as referred to in the Act of June 4, 1920 [National Defense Act Amendments] (41 Stat.760) that provided for the peacetime army), "General of the Army of the United States", and "General of the Armies of the United States" were all the same grade held by Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and now Pershing, who was therefore entitled to the annual pay of $13,500 and other privileges set for Sherman in 1870, including the right to retire at full pay and allowances.[151]
^Since the Navy, in fact, had four admirals—the chief of naval operations and the commanders in chief of the United States Fleet, Battle Fleet, and Asiatic Fleet—the Army asked in 1928 to have four generals: the chief of staff and the commanding generals of the Panama Canal Department, Hawaiian Department and Philippine Department. Only the increase in rank for the chief of staff was approved.[168]
^The relevant provisions were amendments to Section 127(a) of the National Defense Act of 1916. In 1940, the authorization, initially applying only to wartime, was extended to national emergencies.[170]
^Procedurally, Bradley's promotion was among a slate of permanent four-star promotions for the Army, Navy, and Air Force, to balance the same promotions granted to the Marine Corps and Coast Guard commandants during World War II, Alexander Vandegrift and Russell R. Waesche.[180]
^The eight four-star Army generals on active duty on 28 April 1952, by seniority within rank, were:
^The final use of such an authority (61 Stat.907) was from 1953 to 1955 for convenience during the Korean War emergency, but was dropped at the request of the Senate Armed Services Committee.[190]
Heaton, Dean R. (1995). Four Stars: The Super Stars of United States Military History. Baltimore, Maryland: Gateway Press, Inc. ISBN9780970044709.
Meyer, Edward C.; Ancell, R. Manning; Mahaffey, Jane (30 March 1995). Who Will Lead? Senior Leadership in the United States Army. Westport: Praeger Publishers. ISBN978-0275950415.
Cole, Ronald H.; Poole, Walter S.; Schnabel, James F.; Watson, Robert J.; Webb, Willard J. (1995). "The History of the Unified Command Plan, 1946-1993"(PDF). Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Archived from the original(PDF) on 27 November 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2007.
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