Flag Officer

Brigadier General wears one star and enters the general officer corps, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate for ...

Major General wears two stars and classically commands a division of ten thousand to twenty thousand soldiers, the Army largest fi...

Lieutenant General wears three stars and commands a corps of tens of thousands, an Army service component command, or a major join...

General wears four stars and occupies the Army most senior positions: Chief of Staff of the Army, combatant commanders, and multin...

General of the Army was authorized by Congress in December 1944 so that American theater commanders would not be outranked by Brit...

Rear Admiral comes in two grades, lower half with one star, OF-6, and upper half with two, OF-7, a division restored in the 1980s ...

Vice Admiral wears three stars and holds the Navy largest operational commands: numbered fleets like the Seventh in the Pacific, n...

Admiral wears four stars and occupies the Navy peak billets: Chief of Naval Operations, Vice Chief, commanders of fleet and combat...

Fleet Admiral was authorized in December 1944, matching the Army General of the Army, so senior American naval commanders would ra...

General of the Air Force was created in 1949 for Henry Hap Arnold, who had commanded the Army Air Forces through World War Two as ...

Brigadier wears a crown over three pips, or in dress a crossed sword and baton device with one star, and commands a brigade of aro...

Field Marshal is the highest British Army rank, created in 1736 for the Duke of Argyll from the German Feldmarschall. The badge is...

Commodore wears a single broad gold stripe, wider than any captain stripes, and is the first flag rank in the Royal Navy, OF-6 in ...

Admiral of the Fleet is the Royal Navy highest rank, OF-10, five stripes on the sleeve including a broad one. Holders include lege...

OF-6 opens the general and flag officer band, one star in most services: brigadier general in the US and many armies, brigadier in...

OF-7 marks the two-star grade: major general in armies, rear admiral upper half in the US Navy, rear admiral in the Royal Navy, ai...

OF-8 is the three-star grade: lieutenant general, vice admiral, air marshal. Three-stars command corps, numbered fleets, service c...

OF-9 is the four-star grade: general, admiral, air chief marshal, the highest permanent rank in nearly every member military. Four...

OF-10 is the summit of the NATO rank table: five-star ranks such as US General of the Army and Fleet Admiral, British field marsha...

The legatus legionis commanded a legion of roughly five thousand legionaries, appointed by the emperor from the senatorial class, ...

Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in November 1935 for the five senior commanders of the Red Army, Voroshilov, Tukhachevsky ...

Pasha, from padishah, lord, was the Ottoman title of generals, admirals, governors, and viziers, marked by the horsetail standards...

Shogun, short for sei i taishogun, great general who subdues the eastern barbarians, began as a temporary imperial commission agai...

Marshal of France dates to the Middle Ages and is technically a state dignity rather than a military rank, signified by a blue bat...

Generalissimo, from the Italian superlative of general, has been used for a commander placed above all other generals of a state o...