How Generals and Admirals Get Promoted Now and How That May Change Under Trump

How the U.S. military chooses and promotes its generals and admirals — the highest-ranking officers in the military — rarely gets attention. That changed this month with reports that officials appointed under President-elect Donald Trump may take a far more direct role in shaping the military’s general officer corps.

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The modern military’s rank and promotion structure began in 1980. According to Kate Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for New American Security, a Washington DC think tank noted the 1980 Defense Officer Personnel Management Act which “set into rhythm this 20-year up-or-out retirement system.” The law enshrined up-or-out, and standardized rules, requirements and timeframes for promotions, including for generals.

“If you’re not promoted to the next rank, you’re forced into retirement. We didn’t have that system back in the day and so that was the only other model that we had,” Kuzmiski said. “That again was not based on any kind of loyalty test, but rather on a kind of stagnation.”

Today, the time frame for an officer to become a general is nearly 25 years to become a brigadier general and almost 40 to become a four-star general, Kuzminski said.

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