United States Navy officer rank insignia

United States Navy officer rank insignia

Contents

In the United States Navy, officers have various ranks, called rates in the USN. Equivalency between services is by pay grade.

Rank categories

In the U.S. Navy, pay grades for officers are:

  • W-2 to W-5 for Chief Warrant Officers. Chief Warrant Officers (CWO2-CWO5) are Commissioned Officers; a Warrant Officer (W-1) is not a commissioned officer. Warrant officers are "appointed" to their grade and have a probationary period assigned. The Army and Marine Corps currently appoint Warrant Officers to this pay grade.
  • O-1 to O-10 for Unrestricted Line, Restricted Line, or Staff Corps Officers:

Rank and promotion system

In the event that officers demonstrate superior performance and prove themselves capable of performing at the next higher pay grade, they are given an increase in pay grade. The official Navy term for this process is a promotion. Above the rank of Admiral is the rank of Fleet Admiral. The rank was held by four officers during World War II and not been held by any officer since. It is reserved for wartime use. The rank of Admiral of the Navy was an earlier equivalent to Fleet Admiral. It was awarded to only one person in the history of the U.S. Navy, that being, George Dewey in 1899. Efforts to resurrect the rank in the 20th century (as an O-12 grade outranking Fleet Admirals) failed, making it very unlikely that it will ever be used again.

Commissioned officers originate from the United States Naval Academy, Naval 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/Chief Warrant Officer (LDO/CWO) Selection Program. There are also a small number of Direct Commissioned Officers (DCO), primarily staff corps officers in the medical, dental, nurse, chaplain and judge advocate general career fields.

Commissioned officers can generally be divided into line officers and staff corps:

  • Line officers (or officers of the line) derive their name from the 18th-century British tactic of employing warships in a line of battle to take advantage of cannon 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 unrestricted line and restricted line officers denote their status with a star located above their rank devices on the shoulder boards and sleeves of their white, blue and aviation winter working green uniforms, metal rank insignia on both collarpoints of khaki shirts/blouses, and cloth equivalents on both collarpoints of utility uniforms. Officers of the Staff Corps replace the star (or the left collarpoint on applicable shirts/blouses) with different insignias to indicate their field of specialty.[4] Line officers can be categorized into unrestricted and restricted communities.
    • Unrestricted Line Officers are the most visible and well-known, due to their role as the Navy's war-fighting command element. 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 at sea or combat aviation squadrons or special operations units deployed ashore.
    • Restricted Line Officers concentrate on non-combat related fields, which include marine engineering, aeronautical engineering, ship and aircraft maintenance, meteorology and oceanography, and naval intelligence. They are not qualified to command combat units, but can command organizations in their respective specialized career fields. In certain shipboard environments, many unrestricted line officers fill what might be considered restricted line 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 unrestricted line command career path.
  • Staff corps officers are specialists in fields that are themselves professional careers and not exclusive to the military, for example health care, law, civil engineering and religion. There are eight staff corps: Medical Corps, Dental Corps, Nurse Corps, Medical Service Corps, Chaplain Corps, Navy Supply Corps, Judge Advocate General's Corps, and Civil Engineer Corps. 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 Engineer Corps officers, who serve as the officers for Seabee units. This requires them to serve in a command capacity for ground combatants when the Seabees are deployed to combat areas.)

See also Commodore (United States) - today a title for selected Captains (O-6), and formerly a rank (O-7).

A "tombstone promotion" was a means of promoting combat-decorated officers to the next higher rank at the time of retirement. The advancement in grade resulted in no increase in retired pay. This practice was in use from at least 1920, but was discontinued in December 1959.[5]

Commissioned Officer Ranks

Commissioned Officer Rank Structure of the United States Navy
Pay grade O-11 O-10 O-9 O-8 O-7 O-6 O-5 O-4 O-3 O-2 O-1
Insignia US Navy O11 insignia.svg US Navy O10 insignia.svg US Navy O9 insignia.svg US Navy O8 insignia.svg US Navy O7 insignia.svg US Navy O6 insignia.svg US Navy O5 insignia.svg US Navy O4 insignia.svg US Navy O3 insignia.svg US Navy O2 insignia.svg US Navy O1 insignia.svg
Title Fleet Admiral Admiral Vice Admiral Rear Admiral [6][7] Rear Admiral
(lower half)
Captain Commander Lieutenant
Commander
Lieutenant Lieutenant
(junior grade)
[6][7]
Ensign
Abbreviation FADM ADM VADM RADM RDML CAPT CDR LCDR LT LTJG ENS
NATO Code OF-10 OF-9 OF-8 OF-7 OF-6 OF-5 OF-4 OF-3 OF-2 OF-1 OF-1
  • ¹Awarded only in times of Congressionally declared war (inactive).

Commissioned Warrant Officer Ranks

Commissioned Warrant Officer Rank Structure of the United States Navy
Pay grade W-5 W-4 W-3 W-2
Insignia WO5 USN CWO5.jpg WO4 USN CWO4.jpg WO3 USN CWO3.jpg WO2 USN CWO2.jpg
Title Chief Warrant Officer Five Chief Warrant Officer Four Chief Warrant Officer Three Chief Warrant Officer Two
Abbreviation CWO-5 CWO-4 CWO-3 CWO-2

Officer Corps

Navy Officers serve 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 Corps Dental Corps Nurse Corps Medical Service Corps Judge Advocate General's Corps
Insignia USN Med-corp.gif USN Dental.gif USN Nurse.gif USN Msc.gif USN Jag-corp.gif
Designator1 210X 220X 290X 230X 250X
Staff Corps Chaplain Corps
(Christian Faith)
Chaplain Corps
(Jewish Faith)
Chaplain Corps
(Muslim Faith)
Chaplain Corps
(Buddhist Faith)
Supply Corps Civil Engineer Corps
Insignia USN Chapchr.gif USN Chap-jew.gif USN Chap-mus.gif USN - Chaplian Insignia - Buddhist 2.jpg United States Navy Supply Corps insignia.gif USN Ce-corp.gif
Designator1 410X 410X 410X 410X 310X 510X

1An officer designator describes their general community or profession. The final (fourth) digit (X) denotes 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.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/poprep2000/html/chapter4/chapter4_2.htm
  2. ^ http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/insignias/officers.html
  3. ^ Fleet Admiral (United States)
  4. ^ "Specialty Insignia - Staff Corps".
  5. ^ United States Navy Regulations, 1920 with changes up to and including No. 19 1938 Article 1668(3)
  6. ^ a b [1] 10 USC 5501. Navy: grades above chief warrant officer, W–5
  7. ^ a b [2] 37 USC 201. Pay grades: assignment to; general rules

External links


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