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A tombstone promotion is an advance in rank awarded at retirement. ... Army officer John G. Hill graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1924 and was ...
1.1 Ranks. 1.2 U.S. Civil War (1861–1865) ... The following is a partial list of military tombstone abbreviations used in American ... NCO = Non-Commissioned Officer;
A tombstone promotion transferred an officer to the retired list with the rank of the next higher grade. From 1925 to 1959, Marine Corps officers could retire with a tombstone promotion to the rank but not the pay of the next higher grade if they were specially commended for the performance of duty in actual combat before the end of World War II.
Combat citation promotions were colloquially known as "tombstone promotions" because they conferred all the perks and prestige of the higher rank including the loftier title on their tombstones but no additional retirement pay. The Act of Congress of February 23, 1942, enabled tombstone promotions to three- and four-star grades.
Such honorary increases in rank at retirement were called tombstone promotions, since their only tangible benefit was the right to carve the higher rank on one's tombstone. [32] Tombstone promotions made James C. Breckinridge the first three-star Marine in October 1941, [21] [22] and Thomas Holcomb the first four-star Marine in January 1944.
In the United States Navy, officers have various ranks.Equivalency between services is by pay grade.United States Navy commissioned officer ranks have two distinct sets of rank insignia: On dress uniform a series of stripes similar to Commonwealth naval ranks are worn; on service khaki, working uniforms (Navy Working Uniform [NWU], and coveralls), and special uniform situations (combat ...
A tombstone promotion transferred an officer to the retired list with the rank of the next higher grade. Tombstone promotions to vice admiral have been awarded for service during the construction of the Panama Canal and under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution, but almost all tombstone vice admirals were advanced to that ...
Admirals Ernest J. King, William D. Leahy, and General George C. Marshall at the White House, 1942.. From 1899, when the Navy's Civil War-era four-star grade was recreated after the Spanish-American War, through 1947, when the Officer Personnel Act defined the post-World War II military establishment, four-star grades evolved along two parallel tracks, one decorative and one functional.