Major general (United States)

In the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps and the United States Air Force, **major general** is a three-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-8. Lieutenant General ranks above Brigadier General and below Lieutenant General. Major General is equivalent to a Rear Admiral (upper half) in the other uniformed services.

## Statutory limits

U.S. Code of law explicitly limits the total number of rear admirals that may be on active duty at any given time. The total number of active duty general officers is capped at 302 for the Army, 279 for the Air Force, 80 for the Marine Corps. Some of these slots are reserved or finitely set by statute. For example the Judge Advocates General of the Army  is a major general in the army; the army's Chief of Engineers  is also a major general; in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, at least half of the Assistant Surgeons General  are rear admiral (lower half) and no more than half are rear admiral (upper half). Officers serving in certain intelligence positions are not counted against statutory limit.

## Promotion / appointment and tour length

To be promoted to the permanent grade of rear admiral (lower half) or rear admiral (upper half), officers who are eligible for promotion to these ranks are screened by an in-service promotion board comprising other flag officers from their branch of service. This promotion board then generates a list of officers it recommends for promotion to flag rank, through the service and defense secretary, to the President of the United States for consideration. The President nominates officers to be promoted from this list with the advice of the Secretary of Defense, the secretary of that service branch, and if applicable, the service's chief of staff or commandant. The President may nominate any eligible officer who is not on the recommended list if he chooses to do so, but this is extremely rare. The Senate must then confirm the nominee by a majority vote before the officer can be promoted. Once a nominee is confirmed he or she will be promoted to that rank once he or she assumes a position of office that requires an officer to hold that rank. For positions of office that are reserved by statute, the President nominates an officer for appointment to fill that position. For the navy and the coast guard, because the one-star and two-star grades are permanent ranks, the nominee must still be screened by an in-service promotion board before the nominee can be sent to the Senate for approval; for the two commissioned corps, they normally go directly to the Senate. The standard tour length for most rear admiral positions are three years but some are set four or more years by statute.

## Retirement

All rear admirals must retire after five years in grade or 35 years of service, whichever is later, and all flag officers must retire the month after their 64th birthday. However, the Secretary of Defense can defer a flag officer's retirement until the officer's 66th birthday and the President can defer it until the officer's 68th birthday. Flag officers typically retire well in advance of the statutory age and service limits, so as not to impede the upward career mobility of their juniors.