List of United States Navy four-star admirals

[6] The Act of Congress of 4 March 1925, allowed officers in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard to be promoted one grade upon retirement if they had been specially commended for performance of duty in actual combat.

Tombstone promotions were subsequently restricted to citations issued before 1 January 1947, and finally eliminated altogether effective 1 November 1959.

Congress revived the rank in 1899 to honor George Dewey, stipulating that the grade would again cease to exist upon his death or retirement.

Most of these new creations retired at the end of the war, having been promoted to reward service in the fleet or headquarters, or to achieve parity with wartime counterparts.

Although three- and four-star ranks remained temporary appointments, the practice of reverting to a lower grade pending retirement largely halted after 1942, when Congress authorized officers to be retired in the highest grade in which they served on active duty.

[32] The rank of fleet admiral was created in 1944, and the four officers promoted to that grade were allowed to remain on active duty permanently.

Occasionally this count would fluctuate when a Navy officer was selected as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), as the chairman's four-star representative to the NATO Military Committee (USMILREP), or as the director or deputy director of central intelligence; or by special legislation.

[23] When the long-serving director of the naval nuclear reactor program, Hyman G. Rickover, was finally compelled to retire in 1982, his successor was promoted to admiral and appointed director of naval nuclear propulsion, institutionalizing the position as a permanent four-star billet.

The following list of Congressional legislation includes major acts of Congress pertaining to appointments to the grade of admiral in the United States Navy.