UNITED STATES NAVY OFFICER RANK INSIGNIA

(Redirected from U.S. Navy officer rank insignia)
Commissioned officers in the Navy have pay grades ranging from O-1 to O-10, with O-10 being the highest; those with paygrades between O-1 and O-4 are designated junior officers, those between O-5 and O-6 are dubbed senior officers, and officers in the O-7 to O-10 range are called flag officers or the "admiralty." In the event that officers demonstrate superior performance, they are given an increase in paygrade; the official Navy term for this occasion is to be ''promoted''. Above the rank of Admiral is the rank of Fleet Admiral, which was given to a select few in World War II, but has not been held by any officer since and is reserved for wartime use. Even higher than Fleet Admiral was the special rank of Admiral of the Navy, which was awarded to only one person, George Dewey, in 1899. Efforts to resurrect the rank in the 20th century failed, making it very unlikely that it will be used again. Commissioned officers originate from the United States Naval Academy, Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC), Officer Candidate School (OCS), and a host of other commissioning programs such as the Seaman to Admiral-21 program and the Limited Duty Officer Selection Program.
Commissioned officers can generally be divided into line officers and staff corps; line officers can be further split into unrestricted and restricted communities. Unrestricted Line Officers are the most visible and well-known, due to their role as the warfighting command element in the U.S. Navy. They receive training in tactics, strategy, command and control, and actual combat and are considered unrestricted because they are authorized to command ships, aviation squadrons, and special operations units. Restricted Line Officers, on the other hand, concentrate on non-combat related fields, which include engineering, maintenance, meteorology and oceanography, and intelligence; they are ''not'' qualified to command combat units. However, in a shipboard environment, many unrestricted line officers fill these duties, such as the officers in a ship's engineering department. Because they maintain their general shipboard duties, instead of completely specializing in one career area, they maintain their command career path. Staff Corps officers are specialists in fields that are themselves professional careers and not exclusive to the military, for example medicine, law, and civil engineering. They exist to augment the line communities and are able to be assigned to both line and staff commands. The exception to this is the case of Civil Engineering Corps officers, who serve as the officers for the navy's Seabee units. This requires them to serve in a command capacity for ground combatants when the seabees are deployed to combat areas.
The term "line" is a carryover from the 18th century British tactic of employing warships in a straight line to take advantage of cannons on each side of the ship. These vessels were dubbed "ships of the line" and those who commanded them were likewise called "line officers." Today, all United States Navy line officers denote their status with a star located above their rank devices on the shoulder boards and sleeves of their uniforms. Officers of the Staff Corps replace the star with different insignias to indicate their field of specialty.[1]
This chart represents the current U.S. Navy officer rank insignia. ''(Also see the article on Commodore which explains the evolution of this title (no longer a rank) and its relationship to Rear Admiral over the years)''
'Pay grade'O-101O-10O-9O-8O-7O-6O-5O-4O-3O-2O-1
Insignia
TitleFleet AdmiralAdmiralVice AdmiralRear Admiral (UH)Rear Admiral (LH)CaptainCommanderLieutenant CommanderLieutenantLieutenant, Junior GradeEnsign
AbbreviationFADMADMVADMRADMRDMLCAPTCDRLCDRLTLTJGENS
NATO CodeOF-10OF-9OF-8OF-7OF-6OF-5OF-4OF-3OF-2OF-1

1Wartime only.

'Chief Warrant Officer Rank Structure of the United States Navy'
Chief Warrant Officer FiveChief Warrant Officer FourChief Warrant Officer ThreeChief Warrant Officer Two
W-5W-4W-3W-2

Navy Officers serve in either as a line officer (with a star above the stripes on the sleeve or shoulderboards), or in one of the staff corps:
'Staff Corps'Medical CorpsDental CorpsNurse CorpsMedical Service CorpsChaplain Corps ''(Christian)''
Insignia
USN Med-corp.gif
USN Dental.gif
USN Nurse.gif
USN Msc.gif
Designator1210X220X290X230X410X
'Staff Corps'Chaplain Corps ''(Jewish)''Chaplain Corps ''(Muslim)''Supply CorpsCivil Engineer CorpsJudge Advocate General's Corps
Insignia
USN Chap-jew.gif
Supply.gif
USN Ce-corp.gif
USN Jag-corp.gif
Designator1410X410X310X510X250X
1An officer designator describes their general community or profession. The final (fourth) digit (X) denotes the whether the officer has a Regular (0), Reserve (5), or Full Time Support (7) commission.

The staff corps devices are also worn on the left collar of uniforms.

Contents
See also
References
External links

See also



List of Naval Officer Designators

List of United States Navy staff corps

United States Navy enlisted rate insignia

Naval officer ranks - comparison to other countries and explanation of NATO rank codes

★ U.S. Navy Midshipman rank insignia can be found in the Midshipman article.

★ U.S. Navy Warrant officer rank insignia can be found in the Warrant Officer (United States) article.

References



U.S. Navy Office of Information

External links



Naval History Reference: Naval Uniforms and Insignia

Chapter 4, Section 1: OFFICER RANK INSIGNIA of the Bureau of Personnel Uniform Regulations

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