Editing Curtis LeMay (section)

==Rank history==
;Training and cadet ranks
LeMay held the following ranks over the course of his Air Force career.<ref>National Archives and Records Administration, Archival service record of Curtis LeMay, Archival Records Branch (Released 2007)</ref> LeMay's first contact with military service occurred in September 1924 when he enrolled as a student in the Army ROTC program at Ohio State University. By his senior year, LeMay was listed on the ROTC rolls as a "cadet lieutenant colonel". On June 14, 1928, the summer before the start of his senior year, LeMay accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery Reserve of the U.S. Army. In September 1928, LeMay was approached by the [[Ohio National Guard]] and asked to accept a state commission, also as a second lieutenant, which LeMay accepted.

On September 29, 1928, LeMay enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet. For the next 13 months, he was on the enlisted rolls of the [[Regular Army (United States)|Regular Army]] as a cadet and he held commissions in the National Guard and Army Reserve. His status changed on October 2, 1929, when LeMay's Guard and Reserve commissions were terminated. These commissions were revoked after an Army personnel officer, realizing that LeMay was holding officer and enlisted status simultaneously, called him to discuss the matter and LeMay verbally resigned these commissioned ranks over the telephone.<ref>Records of the War Department Militia Bureau, Adjutant General Form 22, "Telephone resignation of Curtis LeMay", October 2, 1929 (Filed October 14, 1929)</ref>

{|class="wikitable" style="background:white"
|-
| ''Local insignia''
|Army ROTC cadet: September 1924
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O1 insignia.svg|13px]]
|[[US Second Lieutenant|Second lieutenant]], Field Artillery Reserve: June 14, 1928
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O1 insignia.svg|13px]]
| Second lieutenant, [[Ohio National Guard]]: September 22, 1928
|-
| ''No insignia''
|[[Flight cadet]], [[United States Army Air Corps|Army Air Corps]]: September 28, 1928
|}

All officer commissions were terminated on October 2, 1929, pending completion of flight training and commissioning as an officer in the Army Air Corps.

;Commissioned ranks

On October 12, 1929, LeMay finished his flight training and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps Reserve. This was the third time he had been appointed a second lieutenant in just under two years. He held this reserve commission until June 1930, when he was appointed as a Regular Army officer in the Army Air Corps.

LeMay experienced slow advancement throughout the 1930s, as did most officers of the seniority-driven Regular Army. At the start of 1940 he was promoted to captain after serving nearly eleven years in the lieutenant grades. Beginning in 1941, LeMay began to receive temporary advancements in grade in the expanding Army Air Forces and advanced from captain to brigadier general in less than four years; by 1944, he was a major general in the Army Air Forces. When World War II ended, he was appointed to the permanent rank of brigadier general in the Regular Army and then promoted to permanent major general rank (two star) when the Air Force became its own separate branch of service. LeMay was simultaneously appointed to temporary three star general rank in the Air Force and promoted to the full rank of general, permanent in the Air Force, in 1951. LeMay held this rank until his retirement in 1965. He was the youngest ever to achieve the rank of 4 stars (age 44).{{cn|date=March 2025}} He was noted for this quote (when firing a subordinate): "I can't tell if you are inept or unfortunate - but I don't have time for either one."{{cn|date=March 2025}}

{|class="wikitable" style="background:white"
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O1 insignia.svg|13px]]
| Second lieutenant, Air Corps Reserve: October 12, 1929
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O1 insignia.svg|13px]]
| Second lieutenant, Army Air Corps: February 1, 1930
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O2 insignia.svg|13px]]
| [[US First Lieutenant|First lieutenant]], Army Air Corps: March 12, 1935
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O3 insignia.svg|33px]]
| [[Captain (OF-2)|Captain]], Army Air Corps: January 26, 1940
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O4 insignia.svg|40px]]
| [[Major (United States)|Major]], Army Air Corps: March 21, 1941
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O5 insignia.svg|40px]]
| [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|Lieutenant colonel]], [[Army of the United States]]: January 23, 1942
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O6 insignia.svg|60px]]
|[[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]], Army of the United States: June 17, 1942
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O7 insignia.svg|33px]]
| [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier general]], Army of the United States: September 28, 1943
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O8 insignia.svg|66px]]
| [[Major general (United States)|Major general]], Army of the United States: March 3, 1944
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O7 insignia.svg|33px]]
| Brigadier general, [[Regular Army (United States)|Regular Army]]: June 22, 1946
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O8 insignia.svg|66px]]
| [[Major general (United States)|Major general]], Air Forces of the United States: September 18, 1947
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|[[File:US-O9 insignia.svg|100px]]
| [[Lieutenant general (United States)|Lieutenant general]], Air Forces of the United States: January 26, 1948
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|{{Dodseal|USAFO8|133}}
| Major general, United States Air Force: February 19, 1948
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|{{Dodseal|USAFO10|133}}
|[[General (United States)|General]], United States Air Force: October 29, 1951<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/afhra-k141.243-4 |title=Appointment to General Officer Grades |page=4 |last=White |first=Robert |date=October 29, 1951 |publisher=[[Air Force Historical Research Agency]] |access-date=October 20, 2021 }}</ref>
|}

Curtis LeMay retired from the United States Air Force on February 1, 1965, with the rank of full (four star) general.<ref>United States National Archives, Archival service record of Curtis LeMay, Air Force Retirement Order (Released Nov 2007)</ref>

'''Further promotions'''

According to letters in LeMay's service record, while he was in command of SAC during the 1950s several petitions were made by Air Force service members to have LeMay promoted to the rank of [[General of the Air Force (United States)|General of the Air Force]] (five stars). The Air Force leadership, however, felt that such a promotion would lessen the prestige of this rank, which was seen as a wartime rank to be held only in times of extreme national emergency.

Per the chief of the Air Force General Officers Branch, in a letter dated February 28, 1962:

<blockquote>It is clear that a grateful nation, recognizing the tremendous contributions of the key military and naval leaders in World War II, created these supreme grades as an attempt to accord to these leaders the prestige, the clear-cut leadership, and the emolument of office befitting their service to their country in war. It is the conviction of the Department of the Air Force that this recognition was and is appropriate. Moreover, appointments to this grade during periods other than war would carry the unavoidable connotation of downgrading of those officers so honored in World War II.</blockquote>

Thus, no serious effort was ever made to promote LeMay to the rank of General of the Air Force, and the matter was eventually dropped after his retirement from active service in 1965.