Flag of a United States Coast Guard admiral

This is a complete list of four-star admirals in the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

. The rank of admiral (or ''full admiral'', or ''four-star admiral'') is the highest rank in the U.S. Coast Guard. It ranks above vice admiral (''three-star admiral'') and below Fleet Admiral (''five-star admiral''). There have been 23 four-star admirals in the history of the

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...

. Of these, 22 achieved that rank while on active duty and one was promoted upon retirement in recognition of combat citations. All were commissioned via the

United States Coast Guard Academy The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) is a service academy of the United States Coast Guard in New London, Connecticut. Founded in 1876, it is the smallest of the five U.S. service academies and provides education to future Coast G ...

or its predecessor, the School of Instruction of the

United States Revenue Cutter Service ) , colors= , colors_label= , march= , mascot= , equipment= , equipment_label= , battles= , anniversaries=4 August , decorations= , battle_honours= , battle_honours_label= , disbanded=28 January 1915 , flying_hours= , website= , commander1= , co ...

. Prior to the Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard being elevated to a four-star position in 2016, all four-star admirals in the U.S. Coast Guard held the position of Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

List of admirals

The following list of four-star admirals is sortable by last name, date of rank,Dates of rank are taken, where available, from the officer's official biography (). number of years on active duty at four-star rank (Yrs),The number of years on active duty at four-star rank is approximated by subtracting the year in the "Date of rank" column from the last year in the "Position" column. active-duty positions held while serving at four-star rank,Positions listed are those held by the officer when promoted to admiral. Dates listed are for the officer's full tenure, which may predate promotion to four-star rank or postdate retirement from active duty. year commissioned and source of commission,Sources of commission are listed in parentheses after the year of commission, and include the

(USCGA) and the United States Revenue Cutter Service School of Instruction (USRCSSI). and number of years in commission when promoted to four-star rank (YC),The number of years in commission before being promoted to four-star rank is approximated by subtracting the year in the "Commission" column from the year in the "Date of rank" column. and other biographical notes.Notes include years of birth and death; awards of the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...

Congressional Gold Medal The Congressional Gold Medal is an award bestowed by the United States Congress. It is Congress's highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions. The congressional pract ...

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

, or honors of similar significance; major government appointments; university presidencies or equivalents; familial relationships with other four-star officers or significant government officials such as U.S. Presidents, cabinet secretaries, U.S. Senators, or state governors; and unusual career events such as premature relief or death in office.

Tombstone admirals

The Act of Congress of March 4, 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. Combat citation promotions were colloquially known as "tombstone promotions" because they conferred the prestige of the higher rank but not the additional retirement pay, so their only practical benefit was to allow recipients to engrave a loftier title on their business cards and tombstones. The Act of Congress of February 23, 1942, enabled tombstone promotions to three- and four-star grades. Tombstone promotions were subsequently restricted to citations issued before January 1, 1947, and finally eliminated altogether effective November 1, 1959. Any admiral who actually served in a grade while on active duty receives precedence on the retired list over any tombstone admiral holding the same retired grade. Tombstone admirals rank among each other according to the dates of their highest active duty grade. The following list of tombstone admirals is sortable by last name, date of rank as vice admiral, date retired, and year commissioned.

Timeline

The first full admiral in the

was Russell R. Waesche, who served as commandant from 1936 to 1945 and was promoted to that rank on April 4, 1945. His successor as commandant, John Farley, also inherited the rank of admiral. After Farley retired on December 31, 1949, the commandant's rank was reduced to vice admiral, although Farley's successor, Merlin O'Neill, was promoted to full admiral upon retirement in recognition of combat citations. O'Neill's successor, Alfred C. Richmond, remained a vice admiral until the commandant's rank was again elevated to admiral on June 1, 1960, where it has remained ever since. ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:10 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1940 till:2030 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1940 Define $now = 2023 Colors = id:ccg value:rgb(1,0,0) legend: Commandant id:vccg value:rgb(0,0,1) legend: Vice_commandant id:time value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.9) id:joint value:rgb(0.8,0,1) legend: Other_joint Legend = orientation:vertical position:right LineData = layer:back width:0.1 color:time at:1950 at:1960 at:1970 at:1980 at:1990 at:2000 at:2010 at:2020 BarData = barset:PM bar:waesche bar:farley bar:richmond bar:roland bar:smith bar:bender bar:siler bar:hayes bar:gracey bar:yost bar:kime bar:kramek bar:loy bar:collins bar:allen bar:papp bar:zukunft bar:michel bar:ray bar:schultz bar:fagan bar:poulin PlotData= width:6 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM bar:waesche from: 1945 till: 1946 color:ccg text:" Russell R. Waesche" bar:farley from: 1946 till: 1950 color:ccg text:" Joseph F. Farley" bar:richmond from: 1960 till: 1962 color:ccg text:" Alfred C. Richmond" bar:roland from: 1962 till: 1966 color:ccg text:" Edwin J. Roland" bar:smith from: 1966 till: 1970 color:ccg text:"

Willard J. Smith Willard John Smith (May 14, 1910 – April 1, 2000) served as the 13th commandant of the United States Coast Guard from 1966 to 1970. He was born in Suttons Bay, Michigan, and was the son of Oscar Smith, a retired commissioned warrant offi ...

" bar:bender from: 1970 till: 1974 color:ccg text:" Chester R. Bender" bar:siler from: 1974 till: 1978 color:ccg text:" Owen W. Siler" bar:hayes from: 1978 till: 1982 color:ccg text:"

John B. Hayes John Briggs Hayes (30 August 192417 January 2001) was an admiral of the United States Coast Guard who served as the 16th commandant from 1978 to 1982. Early life and education Hayes was born in Jamestown, New York, and grew up in Bradford, Pen ...

" bar:gracey from: 1982 till: 1986 color:ccg text:" James S. Gracey" bar:yost from: 1986 till: 1990 color:ccg text:" Paul A. Yost, Jr." bar:kime from: 1990 till: 1994 color:ccg text:" J. William Kime" bar:kramek from: 1994 till: 1998 color:ccg text:" Robert E. Kramek" bar:loy from: 1998 till: 2002 color:ccg text:" James M. Loy" bar:collins from: 2002 till: 2006 color:ccg text:" Thomas H. Collins" bar:allen from: 2006 till: 2010 color:ccg text:" Thad W. Allen" bar:allen from: 2010 till: 2010 color:joint bar:papp from: 2010 till: 2014 color:ccg text:" Robert J. Papp, Jr." bar:zukunft from: 2014 till: 2018 color:ccg text:" Paul F. Zukunft" bar:michel from: 2016 till: 2018 color:vccg text:"

Charles D. Michel Charles David Michel (born April 7, 1963) is a former United States Coast Guard admiral who last served as the 30th vice commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. He is the first vice commandant to hold the rank of admiral while in office. Originall ...

" bar:ray from: 2018 till: 2021 color:vccg text:" Charles W. Ray" bar:schultz from: 2018 till: 2022 color:ccg text:" Karl L. Schultz" bar:fagan from: 2021 till: 2022 color:vccg bar:fagan from: 2022 till: $now color:ccg text:" Linda L. Fagan" bar:poulin from: 2022 till: $now color:vccg text:"

Steven D. Poulin Steven D. Poulin (born January 1, 1962) is a United States Coast Guard admiral who serves as the 33rd Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard since May 31, 2022. He most recently served as commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic Area and Coast Guard D ...

Notes

References

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List of admirals

Tombstone admirals

Timeline

Notes

References

See also