List of United States Marine Corps four - star generals This is a complete list of four - star generals in the United States Marine Corps . The rank of general ( or " full general " , or " four - star general " ) is the highest rank in the Marine Corps . It ranks above lieutenant general ( " three - star general " ) . There have been 65 four - star generals in the history of the United States Marine Corps . Of these , 48 achieved that rank while on active duty , 17 were promoted upon retirement in recognition of combat citations , and one was promoted posthumously . Generals entered the Marine Corps via several paths : 28 via Officer Candidates School ( OCS ) , 20 via Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps ( NROTC ) at a civilian university , 10 via the United States Naval Academy ( USNA ) , 4 via Reserve Officers ' Training Corps ( ROTC ) at a civilian university , and 4 via ROTC at a senior military college . List of generals . 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 . Each entry lists the general ' 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 generals . 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 all the perks and prestige of the higher rank including the loftier title on their tombstones but no additional retirement pay . 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 . The practice was terminated in an effort to encourage senior officer retirements prior to the effective date of the change to relieve an overstrength in the senior ranks . Any general who actually served in a grade while on active duty receives precedence on the retirement list over any tombstone general holding the same retired grade . Tombstone generals rank among each other according to the dates of their highest active duty grade . The following list of tombstone generals is sortable by last name , date of rank as lieutenant general , date retired , and year commissioned . Timeline . By the Act of March 21 , 1945 , Congress permitted the President to appoint the Commandant of the Marine Corps to the grade of general . Alexander Vandegrift , then Commandant , was promoted from lieutenant general to general on April 4 , 1945 , to rank from March 21 of that year . He thus became the first Marine to serve in the grade of general . The Office of the Commandant was permanently fixed at the grade of four - star general under authority of the Act of August 7 , 1947 . All Commandants since that date have been entitled by law to serve in the grade of general and , in accordance with the provisions of 10 USC 5201 , to retire in that grade . In April 1969 , the Senate passed and sent a bill to the White House that makes the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps a four - star general when the active duty strength of the Marine Corps exceeds 200 , 000 . On May 5 , 1969 , President Richard Nixon signed the bill , and Lieutenant General Lewis William Walt was promoted to that rank on June 2 , 1969 , thus becoming the first Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps to attain four - star rank . Legislation allowing the Assistant Commandant to wear the four - star insignia regardless of the strength of the Marine Corps was approved by President Gerald Ford on March 4 , 1976 . On November 22 , 1985 , General George B . Crist was promoted to four - star rank and on November 27 , he assumed the position of Commander in Chief of U . S . Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base , Florida . His appointment marked the first time a Marine headed a unified command and the first time the Corps had three four - star generals on active duty at the same time . Since 1985 , a number of Marines have served in joint positions holding four - star rank , and it is no longer uncommon for the Corps to have four or five four - star generals on active duty at the same time . In 2005 , General Peter Pace became the first Marine to be appointed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , the chief military advisor to the President of the United States and most senior appointment in the United States armed forces . Previously , in 2001 , General Pace was the first Marine officer to be appointed as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( VCJCS ) . The standard tour length for the commandant ( CMC ) is four years ; two years for the assistant commandant ( ACMC ) ; for a combatant commander , three years ; and a total of four years served in consecutive two - year terms for the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( CJCS / VCJCS ) .