WASHINGTON - Marine Col. John R. Allen, who a year ago was named to the highest position ever held by a Marine at the Naval Academy, has been nominated by President Bush to become a brigadier general, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld announced yesterday.

Allen, 49, the Naval Academy's commandant of midshipmen, must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, a Department of Defense spokeswoman said. He is a 1976 academy graduate and career officer.

"There are many outstanding colonels in the Marine Corps today who would make superb general officers," Allen said in a statement released yesterday, "so to be selected is truly a humbling experience."

Allen holds the second-highest military post at the academy.