List of United States military leaders by rank

United States military seniority is the method by which the United States armed forces determine precedence among commissioned officers, in particular those who hold the same rank. Seniority is used to determine assignments, tactical commands, promotions and general courtesy. To a lesser extent, historical seniority is used to recognize status of honor given to early United States military leaders such as inaugural holders of certain ranks or those officers who served as leadership during major wars and armed conflicts.

The modern-day seniority system of the United States commissioned officer corps operates on two different levels. For officers of different ranks, seniority is simply determined by who holds the highest rank. For instance, Army colonel is senior to captain and captain senior to lieutenant. Seniority extends across services as for instance major in the Army is senior to captain in the Air Force while commander in the United States Navy is senior to both. For officers in the same rank or pay-grade, seniority is determined by "lineal number", which is based on the date an officer was first commissioned. One of the few non-punitive disciplinary actions, which may be taken against an officer involves the loss of lineal number standing, effectively meaning they will not be promoted within the same year group, in which they were commissioned.

A type of "positional seniority" exists for military officers who hold top leadership positions of the armed forces. For instance, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is considered the senior most officer of the entire United States military, even though it is possible that contemporaries of the same rank may have earlier commissioned dates and therefore are technically more senior. Likewise, heads of various armed service branches are considered senior most within their service; unified commanders are also considered senior most in their respective regions yet not necessarily to each other.

The regular United States military hierarchy is as follows:

When compared to each other, seniority is determined among the service heads by lineal number and commissioning date. Externally, the standing of each service head is determined by the date of the creation of the service as follows.

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