by Powerbits
In the United States Armed Forces, a general is a four-star general officer in the United States Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force.
A general ranks above a lieutenant general and below the special wartime ranks of General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps and Space Force do not have an established grade above general. The pay grade of general is O-10. It is equivalent to the rank of admiral in the other United States uniformed services which use naval ranks. It is abbreviated as GEN in the Army and Gen in the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force.
Since the ranks of General of the Army and General of the Air Force are reserved for wartime use only, the rank of general is the highest general officer rank in peacetime.
The United States Code explicitly limits the total number of general officers (termed flag officers in the Navy and Coast Guard) that may be on active duty at any given time. The total number of active duty general officers is capped at 231 for the Army, 62 for the Marine Corps, 198 for the Air Force, and 162 for the Navy.[1] No more than about 25% of a service’s active duty general or flag officers may have more than two stars,[2] and statute sets the total number of four-star officers allowed in each service.[2] This is set at 7 Army generals, 2 Marine generals, 8 Air Force generals, 1 Space Force general, and 2 Coast Guard admirals.[2]
Several of these slots are reserved by statute. For example, the two highest-ranking members of each service (the service chief and deputy service chief) are designated as generals. For the Army the Chief of Staff and the Vice Chief of Staff are generals; for the Marine Corps, the Commandant and the Assistant Commandant are both generals; for the Air Force, the Chief of Staff and Vice Chief of Staff are generals; and for the Space Force, the Chief of Space Operations is a general. In addition, for the National Guard, the Chief of the National Guard Bureau[3] is a general under active duty in the Army or Air Force.
There are several exceptions to these limits allowing more than allotted within the statute.[4]
- An officer serving as Chairman or Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;
- an officer serving as Chief of the National Guard Bureau counts only against their service’s four-star cap;
- the commander of a Unified Combatant Command;[5]
- the commander of United States Forces Korea;[5]
- officers serving in certain intelligence positions i.e. the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency;[6]
- officers serving in four-star slots added by the President to one service which are offset by removing an equivalent number from other services.[2]
Finally, all statutory limits may be waived at the President’s discretion during time of war or national emergency.[7]
1 Requirement
- Reach 150000 Credits
