Why is the Colonel Called Kernal?
The Origin of the Ranks and Rank Insignia Now Used by the United
States Armed Forces
by Raymond Oliver
Museum Curator, McClellan Aviation Museum
[Office of History, Sacramento Air Logistics Center,
McClellan AFB CA 95652 (August 1983)]
Table of Contents
The armed forces does not have a handy booklet explaining the
origin and history of the ranks and insignia of the military. The
recently established Project Warrior and the Air Force Logistics
Command's Heritage Program have sparked interest in this area of
Raymond Oliver, in answering a request from a colonel as to why
her title was pronounced kernal and where her eagle
insignia originated, began this booklet to trace the development
of general categories of rank. Raymond Oliver produced the
original booklet independently, but when requested to have it
printed as a special study, eagerly cooperated. A few minor
editorial changes and corrections have been made to the original
draft, first published in 1982. The booklet, in the interest of
space, is not footnoted but a list of sources follows the
The military, it is hoped, will now have a deeper appreciation
for his or her insignia and wear it proudly. Civilians unfamiliar
with the rank structure of the military will find this booklet
helpful in answering questions of what can be confusing to the
/s/MAURICE A. MILLER
Maurice A. Miller
Chief, Office of History
Why is Colonel pronounced kernal? Why does a Lieutenant
General outrank a Major General? Why is Navy Captain a higher
rank than Army-Air Force-Marine Captain? Why do Sergeants wear
chevrons? Was John J. Pershing a six-star General?
As I searched for answers to these and other such questions I
found little easily available information on the origins and
histories of the military ranks and rank insignia. I wrote this
booklet to help correct that situation.
Many people helped me find this sometimes obscure information,
among them Captain James Tily, USN (Retired), Detmar Finke,
Colonel Richard Allen, Stanley Kalkus, John Slonaker, J. David
Browne, Mary Haynes, Bob Aquilina, Opal Landen, Marjorie
Whittington, Michael McAfee, A.W. Haarman, D.J. Crawford, Earl
Jastram, Lynwood Carranco, Bonnie Olson, Truman Grandy, Dr. S.J.
Lewis, Vern Morten, Emily Slocum, Carroll Pursell, Janet
Griffith, Pat Carter and Olga Oliver.
McClellan Aviation Museum
The United States military services still use many of the ranks
they started with when they began in 1775 at the start of our
Revolutionary War. The leaders adopted the organization,
regulations and ranks of the British army and navy with just
minor changes. This is not surprising because our Revolutionary
Army was made up of colonial militia units that had been
organized and drilled by British methods for many years. Most of
the military experience of the soldiers and their officers,
George Washington among them, had come from service in militia
units fighting alongside British army units during the French and
Indian War of 1754-1763.
The British navy was the most successful in the world at that
time so the Continental Congress' navy committee, headed by John
Adams who became President after Washington, copied it as they
set up our Navy. They adopted some British regulations with
hardly a change in the wording. Our first Marine units patterned
themselves after British marines.
Revolutionary Army rank insignia, however, did not follow the
British pattern but was similar to the insignia used by the
French, our allies after 1779. After the war our Army often used
the uniform styles and some insignia of the British as well as
the French armies. During the latter part of the Nineteenth
Century, German army styles also influenced our Army's dress. Our
Navy used rank insignia and uniforms similar to the British
navy's during the Revolutionary War and afterwards. Marine rank
insignia has usually been similar to the Army's, especially after
The Coast Guard dates from 1915 when Congress combined the
Revenue Cutter Service, which started in 1790, with the U.S. Life
Saving Service. During World War I, Coast Guard ranks became the
same as the Navy's. The Air Force started as a separate service
in 1947. Its officers use the same ranks and rank insignia as the
Army. I will discuss the enlisted rank insignia later.
The basic names for members of the military professions go back
several centuries. A Seaman's occupation is on the sea and his
name, from an Old English word that was pronounced see-man, means
a person whose occupation is on the sea. A Sailor is a person
professionally involved with navigation or sailing. His name,
which comes from the Old English word saylor, means just
that, a person professionally involved with navigation. A Marine
gets his name from the Latin word marinus, which means
something pertaining to the sea. A Soldier is a person who serves
in a military force for pay. His name comes from the Latin
soldus, a contraction of another Latin word
solidus, a Roman coin used for, among other things,
paying military men.
Private comes from the Latin word privus or perhaps
privo that meant an individual person, and later an
individual without (deprived of) an office. That certainly
describes a Private in our Army or Marine Corps. The term as a
military rank seems to come from the Sixteenth Century when
individuals had the privilege of enlisting or making private
contracts to serve as private soldiers in military units. Before
the Sixteenth Century, many armies were simply feudal levies in
which the feudal lords forced their serfs or subjects to serve.
Airman is a recent word that means somebody involved with flying.
The Air Force gave that title to the members of its four lowest
enlisted ranks in 1952.
Chevron is a French word meaning rafter or roof, which is what
a chevron looks like; two straight lines meeting at an angle just
as rafters do in a roof. It has been an honourable
ordinarie in heraldry since at least the Twelfth Century.
Ordinaries are simple straight line forms that seem to have
originated in the wood or iron bars used to fasten together or
strengthened portions of shields. Other ordinaries include the
cross, the diagonal cross or x, the triangle, the
y, and horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines. The
chevron was a basic part of the colorful and complicated science
of heraldry. It appeared on the shields and coats-of-arms of
knights, barons and kings.
Chevrons were thus easily recognized symbols of honor. That might
be why French soldiers started wearing cloth chevrons with the
points up on their coat sleeves in 1777 as length of service and
good conduct badges. Some British units also used them to show
length of service. In 1803 the British began using chevrons with
the points down as rank insignia. Sergeants wore three and
Corporals two. Perhaps they wore them with the points down to
avoid confusion with the earlier length of service chevrons worn
with the points up. Some British units also used chevrons of gold
lace as officers' rank insignia. British and French soldiers who
served in our Revolutionary War wore chevrons, as did some
American soldiers. In 1782 General George Washington ordered that
enlisted men who had served for three years with bravery,
fidelity and good conduct wear as a badge of honor a
narrow piece of white cloth, of angular form on the left
sleeve of the uniform coat.
In 1817, Sylvanus Thayer, then superintendent of the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, used chevrons to show cadet rank.
From there they spread to the rest of the Army and Marine Corps.
From 1820 to 1830, Marine Captains wore three chevrons of gold
lace with points down on each sleeve above the elbows of their
dress uniforms. Lieutenants wore one or two gold lace chevrons
depending on whether they were staff or command officers. Marine
Noncommissioned Officers started wearing cloth chevrons with the
points up as rank insignia in 1836. They had been wearing them
for three years as length of service badges. In 1859 they began
wearing chevrons in about the same patterns they do today.
Starting in 1820, Army company grade officers and Sergeants wore
one chevron with the point up on each arm. The officers' chevrons
were of gold or silver lace, depending on the wearer's branch
of service. Captains wore their chevrons above the elbow while
Lieutenants wore theirs below. Sergeant Majors and Quartermaster
Sergeants wore worsted braid chevrons above the elbow while other
Sergeants and Senior Musicians wore theirs below. Corporals wore
one chevron on the right sleeve above the elbow. By 1833 the Army
and Marine company grade officers had stopped wearing chevrons
and returned to epaulettes as rank insignia. Sergeants of the
Army dragoons then began wearing three chevrons with points down
and Corporals two. All other NCOs wore cloth epaulettes to show
their rank. From 1847 to 1851 some Army NCOs wore chevrons with
the points up on their fatigue uniform jackets but still used
cloth epaulettes on their dress uniforms. After 1851 all Army
NCOs wore chevrons with points down until 1902 when the Army
turned the points up and adopted the patterns used today, two
chevrons for Corporals, three for Sergeants, and combinations of
arcs and other devices beneath the chevrons for higher grades of
The stripes worn by Air Force members date from 1948. The basic
design was one of several presented to 150 NCOs at Bolling Air
Force Base, Washington D.C., in late 1947 or early 1948. Some
55 percent of the NCOs preferred one design, so on 9 March 1948,
General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, then the Air Force Vice Chief of
Staff, accepted their choice and approved the design. Naturally,
it took some time to obtain and distribute the new stripes so it
could have been a year or more before all Air Force members got
Whoever designed the stripes might have been trying to combine
the shoulder patch worn by members of the Army Air Forces during
World War II and the insignia used on aircraft. The patch
featured wings with a pierced star in the center, while the
aircraft insignia was a star with two bars. The stripes might be
the bars from the aircraft insignia but slanted gracefully upward
to suggest wings. The silver grey color contrasts with the blue
uniform and might suggest clouds against blue sky.
Most enlisted service members wear chevrons or stripes to show
their ranks. The exceptions are the lowest three grades of Navy
and Coast Guard Seamen, and the Army Specialists. The Seamen wear
one, two or three diagonal stripes, or hashmarks, on
their sleeves. These stripes first appeared on the cuffs of
sailors' jumpers in 1886. Petty Officers and Seamen First Class
wore three stripes, Seamen Second Class two stripes and Seamen
Third Class one stripe. Shortly after World War II, the Navy
moved the stripes to its Seamen's upper arms, as did the Coast
Guard. Army Specialists wear an insignia that combines a spread
eagle and, depending on the pay grade, arcs – sometimes
called bird umbrellas. The eagle and arcs are mounted on
a patch that suggests inverted chevrons. The badge appeared in
1955 as part of an effort to differentiate between the Army's
technical or support specialists, who were not NCOs, and the
Corporals often command squads in our Army and Marine Corps. That
was also their job in the Fifteenth Century Italian armies. An
important tactical formation was the squadra, or square,
headed by a reliable veteran called the capo de'squadra
or head of the square, although some squadra members
might have looked on their leader as the squarehead. The
title seems to have changed to caporale by the Sixteenth
Century and meant the leader of a small body of soldiers. The
French picked up the term in about the Sixteenth Century and
pronounced it in various ways, one of them being corporal, which
indicates a mixing with the Latin word corpus or French
corps, both of which meant body. The British adopted
corporal in the Seventeenth or Eighteenth Century and it has been
a part of their army ever since. The British gave the Corporal
his two stripes when they started using chevrons in 1803.
The Sergeant started out as a servant, serviens in
Latin, to a knight in medieval times. He became a fighting man
probably for self preservation because combat in those days often
amounted to cutting down everybody in reach, regardless of
whether they were armed. He became an experienced warrior who
might ride a horse but was not wealthy enough to afford all the
equipment and retainers to qualify as a knight. As an experienced
soldier he might be called upon to take charge of a group of
serfs or other common people forced to serve in an army of feudal
levies. The Sergeant would conduct what training he could to
teach his charges to fight, lead them into battle and, most
important, keep them from running away during a battle. Sergeant
was not a rank but an occupation. He might lead others, he might
fight alone, or as a member of a group of sergeants, or he might
serve the lord of his village as a policeman or guard. The modern
title sergeant-at-arms used by many clubs recalls armed
Sergeants who kept order at meetings.
The English borrowed the word sergeant from the French
in about the Thirteenth Century. They spelled it several
different ways, and pronounced it both as SARgent and SERgeant.
The latter was closer to the French pronunciation. The SARgeant
pronunciation became the most popular, however, so that when the
Nineteenth Century dictionary writers agreed that the word should
be spelled sergeant, they could not change the popular
pronunciation. Thus, we say SARgeant, while the French and others
Sergeant became a regular position, and then a rank, as army
organizations evolved. It has been a key rank in British and
European armies for several hundred years. When our Army and
Marine Corps started in 1775, it was natural that both include
Sergeants. The rank's many duties and levels of responsibility
have lead to several grades of Sergeant. The Air Force used to
have six grades of sergeant, while the Army and the Marines only
had five. The sixth grade was a Buck Sergeant (E-4).
Since the dual (E-4) rank of Senior Airman and Sergeant proved
confusing to the other branches of service, and did not include
more pay and only rarely more responsibility, the Air Force
promoted its last Senior Airman to Buck Sergeant in May
1990, and phased the rank out over the next six years. At present
the Air Force, Army and Marines all have five grades of Sergeant
ranging from (E-5) to (E-9).
The Petty Officer can trace his title back to the old French word
petit meaning something small. Over the years the word
also came to mean minor, secondary, and subordinate. In medieval
and later England, just about every village had several
petite, pety, or petty officials
– officers who were subordinate to such major officials as
the steward of sheriff. The petty officers were the assistants to
the senior officials.
The senior officers of the early British warships, such as the
Boatswain, Gunner, and Carpenter, also had assistants or
mates. Since the early seamen knew petty officers in
their home villages they used the term to describe the minor
officials aboard their ships. A ship's Captain or Master chose
his own Petty Officers who served at his pleasure. At the end of
a voyage or whenever the ship's crew was paid off and released,
the Petty Officers lost their positions and titles. There were
Petty Officers in the British navy in the Seventeenth Century and
perhaps earlier but the rank did not become official until 1808.
Petty Officers were important members of our Navy right from its
beginnings, and were also appointed by their ship's Captain. They
did not have uniforms or rank insignia, and they usually held
their appointments only while serving on the ship whose Captain
had selected them.
Petty Officers in our Navy got their first rank insignia in 1841
when they began wearing a sleeve device showing an eagle perched
on an anchor. Some Petty Officers wore the device on their left
arms while others wore it on their right. All wore the same
device. Specialty or rating marks did not appear officially until
1866 but they seem to have been in use for several years
previously. Regulations sometimes serve to give formal status to
practices already well established.
In 1885 the Navy recognized its three classes of Petty Officers
– first, second, and third – and in the next year let
them wear rank insignia of chevrons with the points down under a
spread eagle and rating mark. The eagle faced left, instead of
right, as it does today.
The present Petty Officer insignia came about in 1894 when the
Navy established the Chief Petty Officer rank and gave him the
three chevrons with arc and eagle. The first, second, and third
class Petty Officers also began wearing the insignia they do
Officers show their rank by wearing metal or embroidered insignia
on their shoulders, collars, caps or sleeve cuffs. In addition,
Navy and Coast Guard officers wear stripes of gold braid on their
cuffs or shoulder marks, sometimes called shoulder boards. The
insignia are fairly standard among the services and easy to
recognize after a bit of instruction or study. It has not always
been so. Over the years officers have shown their rank by such
things as the number, size, and pattern of buttons on their
coats, sleeves, or coattails; by sashes worn across the chest or
around the waist; by the amount of gold, silver or other kinds of
braid; by cockades or plumes on hats; by markings on saddle
blankets; by the cut and quality of uniform cloth; or by carrying
a spontoon, a spear-like instrument [half-pike] that was both a
weapon and a mark of authority. In the early years of our
military services, the rank devices differed so much among the
various Army corps and Navy units that it was difficult for
service members of one activity to recognize the ranks of another
Epaulettes and Shoulder Straps
Before the Twentieth Century, epaulettes and shoulder straps were
common devices to signal rank. Epaulettes, from epaule
an old French word for shoulder, seem to have started out as
cloth straps worn on the shoulders to help keep shoulder sashes
and belts in position. Another story has them beginning as pieces
of armor [ie: spaulder, monnion, pauldron] to protect the
shoulders. By the time of our Revolutionary War, epaulettes worn
by British and French officers had become elaborate affairs of
gold or silver that started at the collar and ended at the point
of the shoulder with heavy fringes of gold or silver wire. To
some they looked like fancy hair brushes. They were also very
expensive, being made of gold or silver, sometimes solid metal
and other times plated. Epaulettes for Sergeants and other
enlisted men were of cheaper metals or cloth. In our Army,
officers started wearing gold or silver epaulettes in 1780 during
the Revolutionary War, and continued to do so until 1872, mostly
on their dress uniforms. Army generals wore epaulettes until
early in the Twentieth Century. Navy officers also started
wearing epaulettes during the Revolutionary War and did not give
them up for their full dress uniforms until just before World
War II. Marine officers wore epaulettes on their special full
dress uniforms until 1922.
The embroidered rank insignia usually appeared on the epaulette
strap or near the crescent, the rounded portion over
the end of the shoulder. For some ranks, such as Major or Second
Lieutenant, the size of these epaulette or the size of the
fringes were the main clues of rank, since those officers did
not wear insignia.
Along with being expensive, epaulettes made pretty good targets,
so the Army switched to shoulder straps in 1831 for other than
dress uniforms. The Navy had been using straps since 1830. The
officers wore the straps across their shoulders at the sleeve
seams of their coats. Usually the straps had raised edges
[piping] of embroidered gold or silver with the rank insignia
embroidered between the edges. Navy officers wore shoulder straps
until 1899 when they changed to their current shoulder marks.
Army and Marine officers wore the straps until the first few
years of this [twentieth] century when they changed to metal
pin-on type insignia. They started wearing the metal insignia
just before the end of the Nineteenth Century on their new khaki
or olive drab uniforms, but also wore the straps on some
uniforms. Army officers still wear shoulder straps on their
[dress] blue uniforms. Many also wear embroidered insignia.
Navy officers started wearing stripes of gold lace on their
sleeve cuffs in 1852, but in different patterns than today.
Captains, for instance, had just three stripes. I will tell when
each rank got its current number of stripes when I discuss that
particular rank. The use of metal pin-on rank insignia by Navy
officers started in 1941 when they wore the insignia on the
collars of their khaki shirts.
The warrant portion of the Warrant Officer's title comes
from the old French word warant that meant variously a
protector, a defense, and an authorization. It is also the source
of our modern word warranty. In 1040, when five English
ports began furnishing warships to King Edward the Confessor in
exchange for certain privileges, they also furnished crews whose
officers were the Master, Boatswain, Carpenter, and Cook. Later
these officers were warranted by the British Admiralty.
They maintained and sailed the ships, and were the standing
officers of the navy. Soldiers commanded by Captains would be on
board the ships to do the fighting, but they had nothing to do
with running the ships. The word soldiering came about
as a seaman's term of contempt for the soldiers and anyone else
who avoided shipboard duties.
The warranted officers were often the permanent members of the
ships' companies. They stayed with the ships in port between
voyages, as caretakers supervising repairs and refitting. Other
crewmen and soldiers might change with each voyage. Early in the
Fourteenth Century, the Purser joined the warrant officers. He
was originally the clerk of burser. During the following
centuries, the Gunner, Surgeon, Chaplain, Master-at-Arms,
Schoolmaster, and others signed on.
Warrant Officers were members of our Navy right from its
beginning. There were Warrant Officers on the ships of the
Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War. When Congress
created our Navy in 1794, it listed the Warrant Officers as the
Sailing Masters, Purser, Boatswain, Gunner, Carpenter, Sailmaker,
Navy Warrant Officers began wearing blue and gold stripes in 1853
– on their caps. They had stripes of half-inch wide gold
lace separated by a quarter-inch wide stripe of blue cloth. In
1888, Chief Warrant Officers started wearing the sleeve stripe of
a single strip of half-inch wide gold lace broken at intervals by
sections of blue thread half an inch wide. In 1919, the other
Navy Warrant Officers began wearing sleeve stripes of gold lace
broken by sections of blue.
Our Revolutionary Army had Warrant Officers, but otherwise the
Army and Marines did not have them again until the Twentieth
Century. In 1916, the Marines made some of their Gunners and
Quartermaster Clerks into Warrant Officers. In 1918, Pay Clerks
could also become Warrants. Also in 1918, the Army created
Warrant Officers in its Mine Planter Service to serve as Masters,
Mates and Engineers of its seagoing vessels. Congress authorized
more Army Warrant Officers in 1920 in clerical, administrative,
and band leading activities, but the intent seems to have been to
reward enlisted men for long service, or provide positions for
World War I officers who could not hold their commissions after
the war. Between 1922 and 1936, the Army promoted only a few band
leaders and Mine Planter Service members to warrant status. In
1936 the Army held competitive examinations to replenish its
Warrant Officer eligibility lists and once again began making
For rank insignia, Marine Warrant Officers wore the insignias
of their respective departments until 1944, when they began
wearing gold or silver bars broken by stripes of scarlet enamel.
Army Warrant Officers got oval bars of gold and brown in 1942.
Warrant Officers in the Army Air Forces wore oval bars of gold
and light blue. In 1956, both [the Army and Air Force] changed to
square-cornered gold or silver bars with blue enamel stripes for
the Air Force and brown for the Army. There were four grades of
Warrant Officers. The Warrant Officer (W-1) wore a gold bar with
two enamel stripes, the Chief Warrant Officer (W-2) wore a gold
bar with three stripes, the Chief Warrant Officer (W-3) wore a
silver bar with two stripes, and the Chief Warrant Officer (W-4)
wore a silver bar with three stripes. The Army found this system
confusing, so in 1969, asked its Institute of Heraldry to design
another device. That was the silver bar with black enamel squares
introduced in 1972 and still worn by Army Warrant Officers. Now
the Warrant Officer (W-1) has one square and each higher grade
gets another square up to Chief Warrant Officer (W-4) with four.
Ensign comes from the Latin word insignia that meant and
still means emblem or banner. A warrior who carried his lord's
banner or ensign became known as an ensign bearer, and then just
an Ensign. Later, the Ensign, still bearing his banner, led a
military unit of about 500 foot soldiers called an
ensigne. As a military rank, Ensign started in the
French army as a junior officer, and soon entered the French
navy, whose lowest commissioned rank is still Enseigne.
Ensigns served in our Revolutionary War in infantry regiments
where they were the lowest ranking commissioned officers. After
the war they also served in Regular Army infantry regiments from
1796 to 1814.
Ensigns did not join our Navy until 1862 to fill the need for
a rank for graduates of the Naval Academy [established 1845] who
had been called Passed Midshipmen, and to have an equivalent rank
to the Army Second Lieutenant. Also, in 1862, Ensigns wore a
sleeve stripe of one one-quarter-inch wide gold lace, which
increased to the present one-half-inch wide lace in 1881. The
Ensign got his single gold bar rank insignia in 1922.
A Lieutenant often takes the place of a superior officer when
that officer is absent. The word comes from the French
lieu (place) and tenant (holder) [cf: locum
tenens]. The Lieutenant then is one who holds the place of
another. Since the Lieutenant took the place of a senior officer
that he ranked next to, he was that person's deputy. Such is the
case for Lieutenant General and Lieutenant Colonel, which I will
discuss later. The Navy Lieutenant Commander came about in a
different way, which I will also discuss later. Those who served
with Captains might have been called Lieutenant Captains
but that title did not survive as a rank.
There may have been Lieutenants aboard British warships as early
as the Twelfth Century when the ships carried groups of soldiers
to do whatever fighting was necessary. A Captain commanded the
soldiers and he might have had a Lieutenant. The rank appeared
officially in the British navy about 1580, but soon disappeared.
It became a designated rank in 1650 as the rank given to noblemen
in training to become Captains. At that time there were no other
ranks below Captain, so there could be three grades of
Lieutenants on a ship – first, second, and third.
The Lieutenant has been a part of our Navy since its beginning
in 1775. In 1862, the Lieutenant's rank insignia was two gold
bars. These became silver in 1877. In 1874, Lieutenants began
wearing the sleeve stripes of two one-half-inch wide strips of
The rank below Lieutenant in the early days of our Navy was
Sailing Master, later Master, a Warrant Officer. After 1855,
graduates of the Naval Academy filled those positions. Their
complete title was Master in line for Promotion to
distinguish them from the Warrant Masters who would not be
promoted. In 1883, the rank became Lieutenant Junior Grade. In
1862, the Masters wore a gold bar for rank insignia, which became
a silver bar in 1877. In 1881, they started wearing their current
sleeve stripes of one one-half-inch and one one-quarter-inch wide
strips of gold lace.
On land, there had been Lieutenants in the British and other
armies for several centuries, so it was logical to have the rank
on duty in 1775 with our Army. About 1832, First Lieutenants,
except those in the Infantry, began wearing a bar – a gold
one – on their shoulder straps as rank insignia. The bar
had to be the same color as the borders of their shoulder straps,
which were gold. Infantry First Lieutenants, however, wore
shoulder straps with silver borders so their bars were of silver.
After 1851 all Army officers wore shoulder straps with gold
borders so the Infantry First Lieutenants then too wore gold
bars. The situation was just the opposite when First Lieutenants
wore their dress uniforms, which had gold epaulettes. Their rank
insignia had to contrast with the gold so they wore silver bars.
In 1872, the Army cleared up the confusion and made the bars on
shoulder straps silver as well. Second Lieutenants did not have
rank insignia, but wore epaulettes or shoulder straps so their
uniforms identified them as officers. When officers and enlisted
men both started wearing khaki uniforms with plain shoulder
straps during the Spanish-American War, it became more difficult
to recognize the Second Lieutenant. Other officers wore metal
rank insignia on their shoulder straps or collars. In 1917, the
Army settled that problem by making the gold bar the Second
Lieutenant's badge of rank.
A Captain is a chieftain or head of a unit. The title comes from
the Latin word capitaneus that meant chieftain, which in
turn came from an older Latin word caput that meant
head. It would seem that a Captain could head a unit of any size,
but as armies evolved, his post came to be at the head of a
company, which by the Sixteenth Century was usually 100 to 200
men. That seemed to be the optimum number one man could manage in
battle. There appear to have been Captains leading Italian
soldiers in the Tenth Century. In the Eleventh or Twelfth
Century, British warships carried groups of soldiers, commanded
by Captains, to do the fighting. The Navy's rank of Captain came
from that practice, which I will describe later in the section on
the Navy Captain.
Captains were company commanders in the British, French, and
other armies for centuries. They carried on that job in our Army
and Marine Corps from 1775 to the present. In the Air Force, some
Captains command some squadrons, which are about the equivalent
Army Captains got their rank insignia of two bars in about 1832
at the same time the First Lieutenants got one bar. The bars were
gold, except for the Infantry officers, who wore silver bars
until 1851. The two bars originated a few years earlier when
Captains and Lieutenants both wore plain epaulettes whose
differences were mostly in the size of the fringes. To help
distinguish between the two ranks, Captains wore two strips or
holders of gold or silver lace across the epaulette
straps, while Lieutenants wore one strip. In 1872, Captains
changed to silver bars. These were two separate bars embroidered
onto shoulder straps or epaulettes. The railroad tracks
used by Captains today appeared when officers started using metal
pin-on rank insignia on their khaki or olive drab uniforms during
or shortly after the Spanish-American War.
Major is a Latin word that means greater, as compared
to minor, that means less [v: majuscule]. As a military
rank, it started out in the Sixteenth Century or earlier as
Sergeant Major, who was the greater of the Sergeants. We
could also think of the Sergeant Major as the big or
top Sergeant, but in those days he was an officer, the
second or third in command of a regiment or similar unit. The
French started forming regiments in the Seventeenth Century by
copying the Spanish technique of combining several companies into
a column led by a Colonel. I will discuss the Colonel later.
Sometimes the Captains of the companies making up the regiment
would choose one of themselves as Colonel, another as Lieutenant
Colonel, and a third as Sergeant Major. Each would still be
Captain of his own company. In practice the Colonel was often
absent, looking after his interests at court or playing politics
for his own and his regiment's benefit, leaving the Lieutenant
Colonel as the effective commander of the regiment, aided by the
Sergeant Major, who was senior to the other Captains. An
important part of the Sergeant Major's job was forming the
companies into a regimental unit and keeping them in proper
formation in a battle or on the march. A loud, commanding voice
was the key to that task, and one of the major qualifications for
the post. A loud voice is still needed for the job.
As the regimental system became permanent during the Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Centuries, the Sergeant portion of the
title gave way, leaving just Major as the regiment's staff
officer. Perhaps the other Captains objected to having a
big Sergeant above them and other Sergeants below them.
The title of Sergeant Major remained, but only as the top
Sergeant among the common soldiers, as he or she is today,
although any good officer will admit that an effective Sergeant
Major is still third in command of his regiment or other unit.
Majors in our Army started wearing oak leaves as rank insignia
on their shoulder straps about 1832. Why the Army chose oak
leaves remains a mystery. Navy and some Army officers had been
wearing gold braid featuring oak leaves and acorns on their
uniforms for several years. Generals, Admirals, and some other
senior officers still wear braid on their caps. One story claims
that the Navy chose oak leaf braid as a tribute to the oak lumber
used to build its ships. While that is a good story, it ignores
the fact that some British and French officers also wore braid
with oak leaves and still do today. The British might have gotten
the idea from the Germans, who wore oak leaves in their headgear
after a battle. That practice seems to go back a long time,
perhaps to pagan warriors wearing the leaves as a tribute to
whatever gods they worshiped. When the Elector of Hanover became
King George I of Great Britain in 1714, his German followers
might have introduced the oak leaf to the British military.
Another story traces the British use of oak leaves to King
Charles II who escaped from his enemies in 1650 by hiding in an
oak tree. Anyway, back to the Major and his oak leaves. In 1832
the color of the leaves had to be opposite the color of the
shoulder strap borders, so Infantry Majors wore gold leaves while
other Majors wore silver. After 1851, all Majors wore gold oak
leaves. They did not have oak leaves on their epaulettes
because the size of the fringes on their epaulettes, and other
features of their uniforms, identified them as Majors.
The Lieutenant Commander rank is one instance where our Navy did
not adopt something from the British navy. Shortly after 1775,
a senior Lieutenant who was Captain of a smaller
(10- to 20-gun) warship was called a Lieutenant Commanding,
sometimes Lieutenant Commandant. In 1862, that rank became
Lieutenant Commander. The British used the rank Senior Lieutenant
until 1914 when they changed it to Lieutenant Commander.
These officers in our Navy began wearing embroidered gold oak
leaves on their shoulder straps in 1862, and the two and one-half
stripes of gold lace on their sleeve cuffs in 1874.
A Commander is one who gives commands or has command over others.
The word command comes from the Latin mandare
that meant to give into one's hand, that is, put somebody in
charge of something so he could command it.
As a rank, Commander appeared in the British navy about 1674 as
Master and Commander, to designate the officer under
the Captain who was in charge of sailing a ship. He might also
be second in command. The position had also been called
sub-captain, under-captain, rector [ie: helmsman], and
The Master and Commander could also command a smaller
warship in which case he would be addressed as Captain.
Since every warship had a Captain, the British worked out a
system of three grades of Captain, depending on the size of ship
commanded. The Master and Commander became the lowest of
the three grades. In 1794, the British cleared up the confusion a
bit by shortening the title to just Commander. Our Navy took a
different route but reached the same point a few years later. The
second of the three grades of Captain was Master
Commandant, which in 1838 became Commander. The third or
lowest grade of Captain was Lieutenant Commanding, which
as we have already seen, became Lieutenant Commander in 1862.
In 1862, Commanders began wearing embroidered silver oak leaves
as rank insignia. They wore the leaves along with fouled anchors
on their shoulder straps and epaulettes. In 1869, the Commander
became a three-striper when he started wearing three
one-half-inch wide stripes of gold lace on his sleeve cuffs.
Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel
Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels owe their titles to the
Sixteenth Century Spanish King Ferdinand. About 1505 he
reorganized part of his army into twenty units called
colunelas or columns. These consisted of about 1000 to
1250 men, further organized into companies. The commander was the
cabo de colunela, head of the column, or Colonel. [nb:
Roman/Italian antecedent colonnello for column leader]
Since the colunelas were royal or crown units,
they were also called coronelias and their commanders
coronels. Later in the Sixteenth Century, the French
copied the colunela idea and from it developed their regiments in
the Seventeenth Century. They kept the title of Colonel and
pronounced it the way it looks. The British copied the regiment
organization from the French. They also borrowed the word Colonel
from the French, but adopted the Spanish pronunciation of
coronel. Why they did is a mystery. The British modified the
pronunciation of coronel to kernal during several
decades of use.
In the French and British armies the Colonels were usually
noblemen whose other interests, during peacetime or between
battles, kept them away from their regiments. Also, they had
little taste for the mundane activities of drilling, training,
and marching. The Colonel's assistants – their lieutenants
– took over at such times and any other times the Colonels
were gone. The Colonels' lieutenants, of course, soon became the
Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels led regiments throughout the
Seventeenth Century and later, and were the obvious ranks for
such positions when our Army started in 1775.
American Colonels started wearing spread eagles as rank insignia
in 1829 when they transferred the gold or gilt eagles that
decorated their hat cockades to their collars. Eagles have been
popular symbols in our and other military services at least as
far back as the Romans. After 1831, most of the Colonels wore
silver eagles on their gold epaulettes or gold-bordered shoulder
straps. Infantry Colonels were the exception. They still wore the
gold eagles to contrast with their silver epaulettes and
silver-bordered shoulder straps until 1851, when they changed to
gold epaulettes and shoulder straps with silver eagles.
Lieutenant Colonels started wearing oak leaves about 1832 on
their shoulder straps. The leaves had to be the same color as the
shoulder strap borders, so Infantry Lieutenant Colonels wore
silver leaves while others wore gold. This arrangement, not
surprisingly, lead to confusion with some Majors and Lieutenant
Colonels wearing gold leaves while others wore silver leaves. The
Army did away with that bit of confusion in 1851 by having all
officers wear straps with gold borders, all Majors wear gold oak
leaves, and all Lieutenant Colonels wear silver leaves, as they
Captains entered the English navy in the Eleventh Century as the
commanders of soldiers serving on ships to do the fighting when
needed. The ships were commanded by Masters, who were Warrant
Officers. The Masters were in charge of operating the ships while
the Captains just concerned themselves with combat. In the
Fifteenth Century, the Captains and their Lieutenants began
taking over the executive functions on the ships. By 1747, the
officers had full command of the ships, so the British made
Captain an official naval title, and thereafter called the
commander of any ship a Captain. In 1748, the British navy
established three grades of Captain, depending on the size of
ship commanded. The top grade of Post-Captain was equal
in rank to an Army Colonel. The two lower grades eventually
became the ranks of Commander and Lieutenant Commander in the
Captain was the highest rank in our Navy from its beginning in
1775, until 1857, when Congress created the temporary rank of
Flag Officer, which gave way to Commodore and Rear Admiral in
1862. The commander of any warship was a Captain. This situation
lead to three grades of Captain ranking, according to the
officer's duties, with an Army Brigadier General, Colonel, or
Lieutenant Colonel. The top grade of Captain became Commodore or
Rear Admiral in 1862, while the lowest grade became Master
Commandant in 1806 and Commander in 1837. The Navy Captain thus
remained equal in rank to an Army Colonel.
The eagle, as a rank insignia for an American Navy Captain, first
appeared in 1852, when Captains wore an eagle perched on an
anchor on their epaulettes and shoulder straps. On the
epaulettes, he also wore a silver star, which he later lost to
the Commodore in 1862. The four sleeve stripes appeared in 1869.
The four stripes also showed up on the Captain's shoulder marks
in 1899. In 1941, he began wearing metal pin-on rank insignia on
his khaki shirts. For that insignia, he exchanged his eagle
perched on an anchor for the spread-winged eagle worn by Army and
The Dutch invented the Commodore rank about 1652, during one of
their naval wars with England. They found they needed officers
to command squadrons, but did not want to create more Admirals,
perhaps to avoid paying Admirals' salaries. A Commodore's pay
was only about half that of an Admiral. The word comes from
comendador, which means having command over
others, and might be of French or Spanish origin. The Dutch
leader, William of Orange, introduced the rank to the British
navy after he became King William III of England in 1689.
Sometime later the British merchant marine began calling the
senior officer of a merchant fleet Commodore. The Dutch also used
the broad command pennant, a wide swallow-tailed pennant, that
has become identified with Commodores in many navies, merchant
fleets, and yacht clubs.
Our Navy used Commodore as an honorary title, from the
Revolutionary War to the Civil War, for Captains commanding two
or more ships operating together, or had other significant
In 1862, Commodore became an official rank and the Navy promoted
eighteen Captains. They wore the single silver star withdrawn
from Captains' usage on their epaulettes. In 1866, they began
wearing the two-inch stripe on their sleeve cuffs. The broad
stripe was inspired by the Commodore's broad pennant and, in
effect, transferred it from his ship's masthead to his sleeve, a
practice also adopted by many other navies and yacht clubs.
Commodore was a command rank in our Navy from 1862 to 1899. After
that, it was a rank to which Captains, who had served in the
Civil War, were retired. The rank was reestablished on 9 April
1943 for World War II service, and 147 officers held it as a
temporary rank. After the war the flag rank structure reverted to
its prewar form. By 1 January 1950, no commodores remained on
When the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act (DOPMA) became
law in 1982, O-7 officers were designated commodore
admirals. The Navy selected 38 Captains to wear the broad
stripe and single star. In 1983, the Defense Authorization bill
changed the title to commodore. With President Reagan's signature
on the Fiscal year 1986 Defense Authorization bill, O-7 grade
officers were again called Rear Admiral Lower Half
Admiral comes from the Arabic term amir-al-bahr meaning
commander of the seas. Crusaders learned the term during their
encounters with the Arabs, perhaps as early as the Eleventh
Century. The Sicilians, and later Genoese, took the first two
parts of the term and used them as one word, amiral. The
French and Spanish gave their sea commanders similar titles. As
the word was used by people speaking Latin or Latin-based
languages, it gained the d and endured a series of
different endings and spellings leading to the English spelling
admyrall in the Fourteenth Century, and to
admiral by the Sixteenth Century.
King Edward I appointed the first English Admiral in 1297, when
he named William de Leyburn Admiral of the sea of the King of
England. Sometime later the title became Lord High Admiral
and appeared to be concerned with administering naval affairs
– rather than commanding at sea. Admirals did become sea
commanders by the Sixteenth or Seventeenth Century. When he
commanded the fleet, the Admiral would either be in the lead or
the middle portion of the fleet. When the Admiral commanded from
the middle portion of the fleet, his deputy the Vice Admiral,
would be in the leading portion or van. The vice in Vice
Admiral is a Latin word meaning deputy or one who acts in the
place of another. The Vice Admiral is the Admiral's deputy or
lieutenant, and serves in the Admiral's place when he is absent.
The British Vice Admiral also had a deputy. His post was at the
rear of the fleet, so instead of calling him the Vice-Vice
Admiral, his title became Rear Admiral. He was the least
important of the flag officers, so he commanded the reserves
and the rear portion of the fleet. Sometimes he was called
Admiral in the Rear. The British have had Vice and Rear
Admirals since at least the Sixteenth Century.
Our Navy did not have any Admirals until 1862 because many people
felt the title was too reminiscent of royalty to be used in the
republic's Navy. Others saw the need for ranks above Captain.
Among them John Paul Jones, who pointed out that the Navy had to
have officers who ranked with Army Generals. He also
felt there must be ranks above Captain to avoid disputes among
senior Captains. The various secretaries of the Navy repeatedly
recommended to Congress that Admiral ranks be created because the
other navies of the world used them, and American senior officers
were often subjected to serious difficulties and
embarrassments in the interchange of civilities with those of
other nations. Congress finally authorized nine Rear
Admirals on 16 July 1862, although that was probably more for the
needs of the rapidly expanding Navy during the Civil War than any
international considerations. Two years later, Congress
authorized the appointment of a Vice Admiral from among the nine
Rear Admirals. That was David Glasgow Farragut. Another bill
allowed the President to appoint Farragut as Admiral on 25 July
1866, and David Dixon Porter as Vice Admiral. When Farragut died
in 1870, Porter became Admiral, and Stephen C. Rowan became Vice
Admiral. When they died, Congress did not allow the promotion of
any of the Rear Admirals to succeed them, so there were no more
Admirals or Vice Admirals by promotion until 1915, when Congress
authorized an Admiral and a Vice Admiral each for the Atlantic,
Pacific, and Asiatic fleets.
There was one Admiral in the interim, however. In 1899, Congress
recognized George Dewey's accomplishments during the
Spanish-American War by authorizing the President to appoint him
Admiral of the Navy. He held that rank until he died in 1917.
Nobody has since held that title. In 1944, Congress approved the
Fleet Admiral rank. The first to hold it were Ernest J. King,
William D. Leahy, and Chester W. Nimitz. The Senate confirmed
their appointments 15 December 1944. The fourth Fleet Admiral,
William H. Halsey, got his fifth star in December 1945. None have
been appointed since.
The sleeve stripes now used by Admirals and Vice Admirals date
from 11 March 1869, when the Secretary of the Navy's General
Order Number 90 specified that, for their undress
uniforms, Admirals would wear a two-inch stripe with three
half-inch stripes above it, and Vice Admirals the two-inch stripe
with two half-inch stripes above it. The Rear Admiral got his
two-inch stripe and one half-inch stripe in 1866. The sleeve
stripes had been more elaborate. When the Rear Admiral rank
started in 1862, the sleeve arrangement was three stripes of
three-quarter-inch lace alternating with three stripes of
quarter-inch lace. It was some ten inches from top to bottom. The
Vice Admiral, of course, had even more stripes, and when Farragut
became Admiral in 1866, he had so many stripes they reached from
his cuffs almost to his elbow. On their dress uniforms the
admirals wore bands of gold embroidery of live oak leaves and
The admirals of the 1860s wore the same number of stars on their
shoulders as admirals of corresponding grades do today. In 1899,
the Navy's one Admiral (Dewey) and 18 Rear Admirals put on the
new shoulder marks, as did the other officers when wearing their
white uniforms, but kept their stars instead of repeating the
sleeve cuff stripes.
A General usually has overall command of a whole army. His title
comes from the Latin word generalis that meant something
pertaining to a whole unit of anything rather than just to a
part. As a military term, General started as an adjective, as in
Captain General, indicating the Captain who had overall or
general command of the army.
Before the Sixteenth Century, armies were usually formed only
when needed for a war or campaign. The king would be the
commander but he might appoint a Captain General to command in
his name. Later, when the title of Colonel became popular, some
kings called their commanders Colonel General. The British Army
stopped using the Captain part of the title by the Eighteenth
Century, leaving just General, as the top commander. Some nations
still use the Colonel General rank, among them the Soviet Union
and East Germany. The king or his Captain General would often be
away from the army, since they had interests elsewhere, so the
job of actually running the army fell to the Captain General's
assistant – his lieutenant – the Lieutenant General.
This was not a permanent rank until the Seventeenth Century. One
of the Colonels might be appointed Lieutenant General for a
particular campaign or war, but he would still command his own
regiment. Since he might also be Captain of a company in his
regiment, it was possible for one man to serve as Captain,
Colonel, and General simultaneously.
The army's chief administrative officer was the Sergeant Major
General, who was also appointed for the particular campaign or
war. He would be an experienced soldier, possibly a commoner,
who served as chief of staff. For much of his
administrative work, he dealt with the regimental Sergeant
Majors, thus his title meant overall or chief
Sergeant Major. His duties included such things as supply,
organization, and forming the army for battle or march. Here
again, as with the regimental Sergeant Major, a loud commanding
voice was a key requirement. As the General ranks became fixed
during the Seventeenth Century, the Sergeant portion fell away,
leaving the title as Major General. We can see this trend in
England, where in 1655 Oliver Cromwell, who ruled that nation
temporarily as Lord Protector, organized the country into eleven
military districts, each commanded by a Major General.
The Lieutenant General and Sergeant Major General dealt directly
with the Colonels who lead the regiments, making up the army.
When there got to be too many regiments for the two generals to
handle effectively, they organized battle groups or brigades,
usually composed of three or more regiments. The word brigade
comes from the Florentine word brigare, that in turn
came from the Latin briga, both of which referred to
fighting or strife. The brigade's commander was the Brigadier,
who in some armies, later became Brigadier General.
When our Army started in 1775, the Continental Congress
commissioned George Washington as General and Commander-in-Chief.
He and his Major and Brigadier Generals wore various colored
ribbons to show their ranks. There were no Lieutenant Generals in
that army. In June 1780, General Washington ordered the Major
Generals to wear a uniform that included two gold epaulettes with
two silver stars on each epaulette. Brigadier Generals were to
wear gold epaulettes with one silver star on each. General
Washington might have chosen the stars because the generals and
admirals of the French forces serving in that war wore stars.
Another story has it that he was inspired by the stars in our new
flag. The General's stars, then, are the oldest rank insignia
still in use by our armed forces.
General Washington was the first to wear three stars when he
became the nation's first Lieutenant General in 1798. After he
died in 1799, there was not another Lieutenant General until
1855. The three stars appeared again, however, by 1832 as the
insignia of the Major General who commanded the Army. In 1855,
Congress honored Winfield Scott for his service as commanding
general since 1841 and for his accomplishments in 1847 during the
war with Mexico by making him a Brevet Lieutenant General. He
held that rank until he retired in 1861. The next Lieutenant
General was Ulysses S. Grant in 1864. Two years later he became
the first General of the Army of the United States, and he chose
four stars as his rank insignia. When Grant became President in
1869 he appointed William T. Sherman as General of the Army and
Phillip H. Sheridan as Lieutenant General. Sherman changed the
rank insignia in 1872 to a gold embroidered coat of arms of the
United States between two silver stars. After Sherman retired in
1884, there was not supposed to be another General of the Army,
but in 1888 Congress relented, and permitted the President to
promote Sheridan, who died two months later. Congress allowed
another Lieutenant General promotion in 1895, one in 1900, five
between 1903 and 1906, two in 1918 during World War I, one in
1929, and then no more until 1939. Our Army has been supplied
with Lieutenant Generals ever since, as has the Marine Corps
since 1942, and the Air Force since 1947.
There were no more full Generals after Sheridan died in 1884,
until 1917, when Tasker H. Bliss, the Army Chief of Staff, and
John J. Pershing, the commander of the U.S. forces [ie: American
Expeditionary Force (AEF)] in France during World War I, went
from Major General to General as an emergency measure, so they
could have ranks equal to the allied commanders with whom they
dealt. They changed the rank insignia back to four stars. In
1918, Peyton C. March also became a General officer.
In 1919, Congress honored Blackjack Pershing for his
wartime service, by permitting the President to promote him to
General of the Armies of the United States, which he held until
he retired in 1924. He chose his own insignia, which was four
stars. Nobody else has received that rank during his lifetime. In
1976 Congress authorized the President to posthumously appoint
George Washington as General of the Armies of the United States,
and specified that he would rank first among all officers, of the
Army, past or present.
Congress did not allow the promotion of any more full Generals
from 1918 to 1929, when the Major General chosen to be Chief of
Staff also became a General, so he could have a rank equal to the
Chief of Naval Operations. Promotions for other Generals did not
come until World War II, with the exception of a permanent
promotion to General for Generals Bliss and March in June 1930.
The Army still has several Generals, the Marines have had at
least one General since 1945, and the Air Force, which started
with three in 1947, also has several.
During World War II, our Army got so big that even full Generals
were not enough, so in 1944, Congress created the new rank of
General of the Army and specified five stars as its insignia.
Congress did not revive the General of the Army rank held by
Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan. The World War II Generals of the
Army were in a separate category from the Civil War Generals of
the Army. In December 1944, the President appointed George C.
Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Henry H.
Arnold as Generals of the Army. In 1949, Arnold's title became
General of the Air Force. Omar N. Bradley got his fifth star in
As to the question of Pershing being a six-star general, there
can be no answer, unless Congress creates the General of the
Armies rank again and specifies the insignia. Pershing does rank
ahead of the World War II five-star Generals, he comes right
after Washington, but he chose his own insignia, and he never
wore more than four stars.
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Uniform regulations of the military services (titles vary).
- Updating of the rank of Commodore was done using vertical
files of The Navy Department Library in January 1998.
- Updating of the rank of Sergeant was done with the
assistance of the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph AFB, TX
on 1 March 1999.