After World War II, four-star appointments were governed by the Officer Personnel Act (OPA) of 1947 until the passage of the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act (DOPMA) in 1980.

The Officer Personnel Act aligned but did not try to unify the separate personnel systems of the prewar Army and Navy, so there were slight variations between the services. Four-star officers in the maritime services—Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard—were appointed with Senate consent to one of a limited number of positions designated to carry that rank ex officio. The Army and Air Force had similar limits on the number of four-star positions that could be designated, but could also appoint an unlimited number of officers to any temporary grade during a national emergency like the Korean War, although the Senate declined to confirm further temporary four-star grades after 1955. Only the initial appointment to a four-star grade needed confirmation by the Senate, not subsequent reassignments.

Two-, three-, and four-star officers all shared the same O-8 pay grade until the O-9 and O-10 pay grades were created in 1958.

History

Appointment

National Security Act of 1947

The National Security Act of 1947 created the post-World War II national security establishment. The Army Air Forces, already semi-autonomous within the Army during the war, became an independent United States Air Force co-equal with the Army and Navy. The three services were unified into a National Military Establishment (NME) under a secretary of defense, but the service secretaries continued to report to the president as heads of Cabinet-level executive departments. The act also created the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Council (NSC), and formally established the Joint Chiefs of Staff as principal military advisors to the president and secretary of defense, ratifying their wartime role.Rearden (1984), pp. 24–26.

The act was amended in 1949 to strengthen the secretary of defense by converting the NME into a full executive department, the Department of Defense, demoting the three services to military departments within the Department of Defense. The 1949 amendments also established a statutory chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who outranked all other military officers.Rearden (1984), pp. 53–54.

Officer Personnel Act

After World War II, four-star appointments were governed by the Officer Personnel Act of 1947 until the passage of the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act (DOPMA) in 1980.

There had been two types of four-star appointments during the war. Permanent peacetime law gave four-star rank ex officio to the officers serving as chief of staff of the Army and chief of naval operations, along with up to three other jobs in the Navy designated by the president to carry that rank. An officer held four-star rank only while detailed to one of those jobs, which did not need Senate consent, and reverted to his lower permanent grade afterward. Emergency wartime legislation also let the president promote an officer personally to a temporary higher grade, which did need Senate consent. An officer could carry a temporary personal grade to any assignment, but it expired at the end of the World War II emergency.

The Officer Personnel Act reauthorized both types of four-star appointments: The standard mechanism under the Officer Personnel Act was for the president to designate a position of importance and responsibility to carry a four-star grade ex officio, and appoint an officer to hold that grade temporarily while serving in that position, subject to Senate consent. The Senate only had to approve an officer's first appointment to a four-star grade, not subsequent transfers to other four-star positions, except for positions required by statute to be confirmed by the Senate, like Army chief of staff. While transitioning between four-star assignments, an officer reverted to two-star major general or rear admiral, the highest permanent grade to which an officer could be promoted personally on the active list. An officer could retire with four stars if nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.Letter from The Judge Advocate General of the Army (JAGA 1960/3423): Retirement - 3 and 4 Star General Officers (March 8, 1960, OMPF (299741_021a.pdf), p. 460); in During a national emergency, the president could make an unlimited number of appointments in temporary grades, including four-star grades, with Senate consent, but only in the Army and Air Force. Since temporary grades were carried by the person, not the office, the Senate only confirmed the initial four-star promotion, not subsequent reassignments, and temporary four-star officers kept that rank even if not serving in a job specifically designated by the president to carry four stars. A temporary four-star officer could be retired with that grade administratively, without action by the president or Senate. To save time and effort during the Korean War emergency, the president asked the Army and Air Force to switch to the more flexible temporary grades in April 1953, but they reverted to the standard mechanism at the behest of the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1955.

The prewar Army and Navy had completely different systems for managing officer promotions, which the Officer Personnel Act updated but did not try to unify. For example, the act streamlined the Navy system by giving Navy staff corps officers the same grades as line officers, changing the grade of Ben Moreell, first four-star staff corps officer, from "civil engineer with rank of admiral" to simply "admiral".Act of August 7, 1947 [Officer Personnel Act of 1947] ().

Four-star caps

During peacetime, the Officer Personnel Act imposed strict numerical caps on the number of four-star positions. The Army and Navy originally proposed to keep appointing five-star service chiefs to oversee a peacetime total of 24 four-star officers: 9 Army generals, 8 Navy admirals, 6 Air Force generals, and 1 Marine Corps general. The House Armed Services Committee slashed this total to 11 four-star officers, reserved five-star ranks for wartime, required for the first time that all three- and four-star officers be confirmed by the Senate, and let them retire in those grades without additional legislation. The final bill authorized 15 four-star officers except during war or national emergency: 5 Army generals, including the chief of staff; 4 Navy admirals, including the chief of naval operations; 4 Air Force generals, including the chief of staff; 1 Marine Corps general serving as commandant; and 1 additional officer serving as chief of staff to the president. Congress specified four-star rank only for the service chiefs and chief of staff to the president, leaving the other 10 four-star positions undefined but expected to be, at least initially: in the Army, the vice chief of staff and commanding generals of occupation forces in Europe and Japan and of Army Ground Forces in the United States; in the Navy, the commanders in chief of the Atlantic Fleet, Pacific Fleet, and naval forces in Europe; and in the Air Force, the vice chief of staff and commanding generals of Strategic Air Command and Air Materiel Command.

A second set of formulas capped the number of four-star officers during war or national emergency. The Army and Air Force formula let each service designate a number of positions to carry ranks above major general, up to 15 percent of its total number of general officers on active federal military duty. Of those positions, up to 25 percent could carry the rank of general.Act of August 7, 1947 [Officer Personnel Act of 1947] () The Navy formula authorized 15 percent of flag officers in the line of the Regular Navy to serve in grades above rear admiral, including up to 8 in the grade of admiral.Act of August 7, 1947 [Officer Personnel Act of 1947] () Even when these formulas were suspended during the Korean War emergency, the services hewed closely to them to appease the Senate committees that still had to confirm any four-star promotion.

If a service was operating below its four-star grade cap, as was the case for the Army and Air Force until the late 1970s, it might designate ad hoc four-star positions for existing four-star officers to smooth transitions between jobs or to retirement. For example, when Lyman Lemnitzer needed extra time on active duty to finish debriefing after stepping down as Supreme Allied Commander Europe in 1969, the president assigned him as special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for two months and designated that position as one of importance and responsibility warranting the grade of general.Memorandum for the President: Retention of General Lyman L. Lemnitzer (June 11, 1969, OMPF (299741_021a.pdf), p. 650); in In 1977, the Air Force twice created a temporary four-star position of special assistant to the Air Force chief of staff, to avoid demoting Air Force generals Russell E. Dougherty and Daniel James Jr. while they were being medically processed for retirement after suffering heart attacks while commanding Strategic Air Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, respectively.Staff Summary Sheet, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel: General Officer Action (November 9, 1977, OMPF (300_James_Daniel_01.pdf), p. 316); in

World War II exemptions The peacetime caps imposed by the Officer Personnel Act would have removed a star from the 3 four-star Army generals commanding field armies in the United States (Mark W. Clark, Thomas T. Handy, and Courtney Hodges) and the 2 four-star Navy admirals other than the chief of naval operations who were not commanding major fleets (Thomas C. Kinkaid and Henry K. Hewitt). To avoid demoting the high commanders of World War II, Congress exempted from the caps every four-star officer in the Army and Navy promoted to that rank before the end of the war, until July 1, 1950. The Air Force was not included in this exemption, so when George Kenney and Joseph T. McNarney were allowed to carry their fourth stars to their next assignments, having both won that rank during the war, their former commands of Strategic Air Command and Air Materiel Command had to be downgraded to three stars.

Korean War emergency

The peacetime caps on four-star officers were relaxed by the national emergency that was declared for the Korean War on December 16, 1950. Under the Officer Personnel Act, a national emergency doubled the Navy's four-star authorization from 4 to 8. The Navy promptly made the vice chief of naval operations an admiral, matching the rank of the Army and Air Force vice chiefs.Act of August 7, 1947 [Officer Personnel Act of 1947] (). When the various military and naval laws were consolidated into Title 10 of the United States Code in 1956, the President received authority to suspend even the higher caps on Navy four-star admirals during a national emergency, which he invoked by executive order in 1960 for the duration of the Korean War emergency.Act of August 10, 1956 (), and Executive Order 10886 (September 6, 1960). For the Army and Air Force, a national emergency removed all legislative caps on temporary three- and four-star appointments, which were limited only by the Senate's willingness to confirm and fund them.

Davis amendment The Officer Personnel Act placed no statutory cap on temporary promotions in the Army and Air Force. Theoretically, the Army and Air Force could promote all their officers to temporary general as long as the Senate Armed Services Committee was willing to approve their nominations and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to fund their pay, an observation that provoked House Appropriations Committee member Glenn R. Davis to attach an amendment to the 1953 defense appropriation act to withhold pay for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year from officers in each grade exceeding fixed percentages of total military personnel.