In the United States Marine Corps general is a four-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above
Lieutenant General . General is equivalent to an admiral in the other uniformed services. Since the grade of General of the Army and General of the Air Force are reserved for war-time use only, and since the Marine Corps has no five-star equivalent, a four-star general is currently considered to be the highest appointment an officer can achieve in these three services.
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.
