General is a four-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above
Lieutenant General and below the five-star
General of the Air Force. General is equivalent to an Admiral in the other uniformed services. Since the five-star General of the Army/General of the Air Force rank is reserved for war-time use only, and since the Marine Corps has no five-star equivalent, the four-star general rank is considered to be the highest promotion possible in these three services.
Four-star officers must retire after five years in grade or 40 years of service, whichever is later,[10] and all general officers must retire the month after their 64th birthday.[11] However, the Secretary of Defense can defer a four-star officer's retirement until the officer's 66th birthday and the President can defer it until the officer's 68th birthday.
General 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. Since there are a finite number of four-star slots available to each service, typically one officer must leave office before another can be promoted.[12] Maintaining a four-star rank is a game of musical chairs; once an officer vacates a position bearing that rank, he has 60 days to find another job of equal importance before he must retire.[8] Historically, officers leaving four-star positions were allowed to revert to their permanent two-star ranks to mark time in lesser jobs until statutory retirement, but now such officers are expected to retire immediately to avoid obstructing the promotion flow.
To retire at four-star grade, an officer must accumulate at least three years of satisfactory active duty service in that grade, as certified by the Secretary of Defense and confirmed by the Senate.[13] The Secretary of Defense may reduce this requirement to two years, but only if the officer is not being investigated for misconduct. Officers who do not meet the service-in-grade requirement revert to the next highest grade in which they served satisfactorily for at least six months. It is extraordinarily rare for a four-star officer not to be nominated to retire in grade, or for such a nomination not to be confirmed by the Senate unanimously.
Four-star officers typically step down from their posts up to 60 days in advance of their official retirement dates. Officers retire on the first day of the month, so once a retirement month has been selected, the relief and retirement ceremonies are scheduled by counting backwards from that date by the number of days of accumulated leave remaining to the retiring officer. During this period, termed transition leave or terminal leave, the officer is considered to be awaiting retirement but still on active duty.
