List of United States Navy four - star admirals This is a complete list of four - star admirals in the United States Navy . The rank of admiral ( or " full admiral " , or " four - star admiral " ) is the highest rank normally achievable in the U . S . Navy . It ranks above vice admiral ( " three - star admiral " ) and below fleet admiral ( " five - star admiral " ) . There have been 249 four - star admirals in the history of the U . S . Navy . Of these , 208 achieved that rank while on active duty , 40 were promoted upon retirement in recognition of combat citations , and one was promoted posthumously . Admirals entered the Navy via several paths : 223 were commissioned via the U . S . Naval Academy ( USNA ) , 15 via Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps ( NROTC ) , 8 via Officer Candidate School ( OCS ) , 2 via warrant , and one via the U . S . Merchant Marine . List of admirals . Entries in the following list of four - star admirals 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 . Each entry lists the admiral ' s name , date of rank , active - duty positions held while serving at four - star rank , number of years of active - duty service at four - star rank ( Yrs ) , year commissioned and source of commission , number of years in commission when promoted to four - star rank ( YC ) , and other biographical notes . The list is sortable by last name , date of rank , number of years of active - duty service at four - star rank , year commissioned , and number of years in commission when promoted to four - star rank . Tombstone admirals . The Act of Congress of March 4 , 1925 allowed officers in the Navy , Marine Corps , and Coast Guard to be promoted one grade upon retirement if they had been specially commended for performance of duty in actual combat . Combat citation promotions were colloquially known as " tombstone promotions " because they conferred the prestige of the higher rank but not the additional retirement pay , so their only practical benefit was to allow recipients to engrave a loftier title on their business cards and tombstones . The Act of Congress of February 23 , 1942 enabled tombstone promotions to three - and four - star grades . Tombstone promotions were subsequently restricted to citations issued before January 1 , 1947 , and finally eliminated altogether effective November 1 , 1959 . Any admiral who actually served in a grade while on active duty receives precedence on the retired list over any tombstone admiral holding the same retired grade . Tombstone admirals rank among each other according to the dates of their highest active duty grade . The following list of tombstone admirals is sortable by last name , date of rank as vice admiral , date retired , and year commissioned . Timeline . 1866 - 1940 . The rank of admiral was created in 1866 to honor the Civil War achievements of David G . Farragut . Upon his death , another Civil War hero , David D . Porter Jr . , succeeded to the title . In 1873 , Congress stated that further vacancies in the grade would not be filled , and the rank lapsed with Porter ' s death in 1890 . Congress revived the rank in 1899 to honor George Dewey , stipulating that the grade would again cease to exist upon his death or retirement . In 1903 , Dewey was promoted to the unique rank of The Admiral of the Navy , which during his lifetime was considered to be equivalent to an admiral of the fleet , but was later declared to be senior to the five - star grade of fleet admiral . The Act of March 3 , 1915 provided that the commanders in chief of the Atlantic , Pacific , and Asiatic Fleets would have the rank of admiral while so serving , and their seconds in command the rank of vice admiral . In 1916 , the chief of naval operations was also made an admiral while so serving , ranking next after The Admiral of the Navy . The ranks of admiral and vice admiral were strictly temporary appointments for the duration of an officer ' s tour in designated billets , and the temporary admiral reverted to his permanent grade of rear admiral immediately upon vacating the office bearing the title . In 1917 , Congress accommodated the Navy ' s desire to reorganize the fleet by authorizing the President to appoint three admirals and three vice admirals for any six fleet command positions . All fleet command tours lasted one year except for the commander in chief of the U . S . Fleet , whose term was sometimes renewed for a second year , and the commander in chief of the Asiatic Fleet , whose command was considered a backwater . ( The chief of naval operations was appointed for four years . ) Officers would typically " fleet up " to admiral or vice admiral for their year of fleet command and then revert to rear admiral to mark time until mandatory retirement . 1941 - present . During World War II , the President was authorized to create as many admirals and vice admirals as he deemed necessary for the duration of the emergency . Most of these new creations retired at the end of the war , having been promoted to reward service in the fleet or headquarters , or to achieve parity with wartime counterparts . Although three - and four - star ranks remained temporary appointments , the practice of reverting to a lower grade pending retirement largely halted after 1942 , when Congress authorized officers to be retired in the highest grade in which they served on active duty . The rank of fleet admiral was created in 1944 , and the four officers promoted to that grade were allowed to remain on active duty permanently . By 1956 , the Navy had equilibrated at a total of seven permanent billets bearing four - star rank : the chief of naval operations ( CNO ) ; the vice chief of naval operations ( VCNO ) , the commanders in chief of the unified commands in the Pacific ( CINCPAC ) and Atlantic ( CINCLANT ) ; the commander in chief of the U . S . Pacific Fleet ( CINCPACFLT ) ; the commander in chief of U . S . Naval Forces , Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean ( CINCNELM ) ( retitled commander in chief of U . S . Naval Forces Europe ( CINCUSNAVEUR ) in 1960 ) ; and the commander in chief of North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) forces in Southern Europe ( CINCSOUTH ) . In 1965 , an eighth billet was added when the chief of naval material ( CNM ) was promoted to admiral . Occasionally this count would fluctuate when a Navy officer was selected as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( CJCS ) , as the chairman ' s four - star representative to the NATO Military Committee ( USMILREP ) , or as the director or deputy director of central intelligence ; or by special legislation . When the long - serving director of the naval nuclear reactor program , Hyman G . Rickover , was finally compelled to retire in 1982 , his successor was promoted to admiral and appointed director of naval nuclear propulsion , institutionalizing the position as a permanent four - star billet . To compensate , another four - star billet was eliminated by merging Allied Forces Southern Europe with U . S . Naval Forces Europe . Similarly , when the U . S . Atlantic Fleet commander ( CINCLANTFLT ) was separated from the Atlantic unified commander in 1985 , the number of four - star billets was conserved by eliminating the chief of naval material position . The U . S . Atlantic Fleet was replaced by U . S . Fleet Forces Command ( COMUSFLTFORCOM ) in 2006 . With the end of the Cold War , U . S . Atlantic Command was repurposed as the joint force trainer , becoming U . S . Joint Forces Command in 1999 . The change in mission cost the Navy its traditional monopoly over that command , which has since rotated among all the services , but the Navy made up the difference through repeated appointments to other combatant commands and to the vice chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( VCJCS ) . All military commanders in chief were retitled " Commanders " in 2002 , when the title of " Commander in Chief " was reserved solely to the President of the United States .