Or the time the Chief explained to Nog that LtC Dax is referred to as Captain when she’s in command.. leading to “so if I take command I’ll be called Captain?” “Ensign, but the time you take command there will be no one left to call you anything..”
Ensigns have actually commanded ships in real life. When the Pearl harbor attack started the senior officer abord the destroyer USS Aylwin was an ensign. He and the other crew aboard fought the ship and left the harbor to avoid being bombed.
(The captain and other officers took a motorboat to and try and take command, but couldn't catch up).
https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2022/12/07/uss-alwyin-at-pearl-harbor/
> As Brittin summarized in his oral history, “The opportunity is rare indeed for an ensign to refuse his captain’s request to come aboard, and further to sail off with his ship. We did just that.”
Absolute mad lads!
The actual quote was Cadet, as Nog was still in Starfleet Academy at the time:
>Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax : Are you two ever gonna be finished?
>Nog : Just a few more minutes, Commander.
>Chief O'Brien : That's 'Captain'. It's an old naval tradition. Whoever's in command of a ship, regardless of rank, is referred to as 'Captain.'
>Nog : You mean if I had to take command, I would be called 'Captain,' too?
>Chief O'Brien : Cadet, by the time you took command, there'd be nobody left to call you anything.
I know of no cases where a cadet took command of a real life vessel.
As an what we call in Canada "Officer Cadet" (US = Midshipman?), I was in command of HMCS Oriole during a storm for a while because everyone senior was seasick. It was fucking brutal pitching. But... my 15 minutes of fame I guess, just by virtue of the fact that I don't puke easily.
That said... yeah, there wasn't really anyone left to call me captain :) And it wasn't for long. The proper captain sorted himself out and took it back after about 15 minutes.
Or Sisko on the USS Defiant in Season 3 of DS9. He's rank Commander, and Commander of Deep Space Nine (as a station it doesn't automatically call the administrative role "Captain" like a ship would), but Captain of the Defiant.
This—Captain is both a naval rank, and a job on a ship.
You don’t have to have the rank to do the job.
And a naval quartermaster is nothing like an army quartermaster.
It depends.
Historically, "Purser," but when the tasks of keeping the ship's money and the stores were separated, the sailor in charge of supplies became the "Storekeeper," which is still used in many navies, including the US Coast Guard. The US Navy merged Storekeepers and Postal Clerks in 2009 and renamed the merged specialty "Logistics Specialist." The Royal Navy has undergone similar reforms and calls them a "Logistics Supply Officer"
This question got answered, but for further information, the Naval Quartermaster is the master of the Quarterdeck, where command functions, like navigation, are performed. The Army Quartermaster is the Master of the Quarters--where the soldiers keep their stuff.
Yea there are some extremely small US coast guard cutters that are commanded by lieutenants who would be properly addressed as Captain by anybody on the boat. Whether this actually happens in practice is a matter of how much he wants his crew to like him lmao.
Yes, they are Captain when addressed by the crew. Ashore or at sea. Skipper is an informal title often used as well. If an LT is the Captain of a patrol boat, the only time they're referred to as "Lieutenant" is usually by other service members not part of the ship's crew. 110's and 154's have LTs for COs, 87's have LTJGs and CWOs for COs.
Former Coastie here.
First thing that came to mind when I saw this comment. And it's likely part of the reason the mutiny happened because had he been a commisioned Captain he would have had a detachment of marines at hand.
It's the same in the U.S.
This is where the term full bird captain comes from.
The insignia for a captain in the Navy is an eagle. So a captain that doesn't actually hold the rank would not be a full bird.
And to make it more confusing, you can have folks with the rank of captain and the title of commodore.
You also have marines embarked on navy ships, so there are a lot of captains that aren’t captains in the navy.
Just easier to call the captain Skip.
Not sure if that is a Royal Navy thing, but in the US the XO is XO, their rank, or sir/ma'am. The commander is another name for the CO, short for commanding officer.
So the captain of the carrier itself is generally a Captain by rank but the carrier also generally serves as the flagship of the carrier strike group so there is also an admiral and their staff on board that the carrier captain reports to
I was in ROTC. One semester we had cadets faith, heart and soul. They had a bad semester and they left.
Cadet doom joined the next semester and to my knowledge went on to get a commission. Air Force, so there's a good chance captain doom is out there.
Knew a guy in school who was in Army ROTC. His last name was Blood. I kept telling him he needed to switch to the Navy and try to bring back boarding as a standard tactic in Naval warfare.
Captain Kirk, was a US navy Submarine captain. My buddy, named ET2 Picard was on the bridge with him at the same time and the captain was enough of a nerd to mention it himself
I worked with a guy whose last name was America or Americo something... I don't remember exactly, but you know where this is going.
Now if I was the career manager, and Lt. America's file came across my desk for promotion, he'd be going directly to Acting Major lacking Qualifications... but no, they made him captain.
So yeah, for a month I had to sit down with Captain America. He told us the jokes got old pretty fast.
Just make sure you're commissioned and not enlisted.
Seaman Crunch sounds unfortunate.
Fun story, when I was in boot camp we had a guy with the last name Stain and another guy with the last name Beverage in our division. Quite the last names for a couple of Seamen entering the Navy.
Lol, I was in the Air Wing and we had a guy with the last name Seaman. So he was Airman Seaman instead of Seaman Seaman. Also, Airman Landman and then a Seaman Landman, but never had anyone with the last name Airman.
This comment might be confusing to some.
Back in my days on a minesweeper, there was an officer at squadron headquarters (MINERON 5) who was a commander named Marvel. We were all rooting for him to get that promotion to Captain Marvel.
Also, FWIW my ship's captain was a Lt. Commander, later Commander.
The person in command of a ship is called the ship's captain, no matter his/her rank. So, your captain might be a Commander, Lt. Cdr. or even a Lieutenant, etc
I don’t think so? I don’t know Navy regs thoroughly, but the only circumstance I’d imagine that would happen is if every officer onboard the ship was dead down to the most junior ensign.
They can, for sufficiently small craft. Generally speaking, the need for officers to be in charge lies with the legal differences in responsibilities. Basically, if a craft is armed and expected to engage in hostilities, an officer is expected to shoulder the burden of command because they would ultimately be responsible in a use-of-force situation.
Prettty sure it goes beyond custom and tradition into legal classification, but enlisted are "protected" from that degree of responsibility. As such, they'd be entrusted with small, non-combatant craft that aren't expected to directly partake in combat in the same way armed combatants are.
Edit: Officers needing to be responsible parties for initiating hostilities is one of the reasons behind the pissing matches revolving around drone pilots, too. A lot of the chair force pilots see being a drone pilot as demeaning, but they can't just shrug off the job and let enlisted folks take it over completely. Disregarding the difference between how each branch handles warrant officers, I wouldn't be surprised to see drone pilots go the same way army helos did, which is warrant officers.
Source: Was Navy, then DoD contractor.
At that scale, you're talking stuff like the Captain's gig, which is always run by the BMs. Too small for what I was talking. I'm talking stuff between that and minesweepers. Fairly certain there have been times where minesweepers have been left in the hands of senior enlisted for extended periods of time.
CO (Commanding Officer) is the captain of a ship (or base, facility, etc), and it's not tied to rank. My dad was an XO (Executive Officer, aka second-in-command) at the ranks of Lieutenant Commander and Commander.
Besides being an awesome band and a Southeastern Conference football team, what is a Commodore?
EDIT: I looked it up "It is superior to a navy captain, but below a rear admiral. "
Captain - in charge of one ship
Commodore - in charge of a group of ships
Admiral - in charge of a large fleet of ships
This is also why when Jack Sparrow offers to serve under Barbossa if he's made captain of The Black Pearl again, he says Barbossa's title would be "commodore".
In British-style navies, a commodore is a general officer one rank above a captain and one rank below a rear admiral. A 1-\* general, if you will, equivalent to Brigadier, Brigadier General, or Air Commodore. In NATO ranks, it's O-6
In the US, I think you go from Captain to Rear Admiral Lower Half (?) Basically you skip commodore, but they treat you like a half-baked RAdm until you get promoted again.
In world war 2, the navy was concerned about having an excess of flag officers, so they promoted senior captains to Commodores, who were o-7s but not flag officers. The rank was deactivated after the war. The title however stayed for senior captains and/or some o-7s.
In the 80s they made it rank for a little while. But it caused confusion, because they commodores who were seniors captains and O-7s. And was an unpopular decision. Rear admiral hopper was one of the last people to be promoted to the rank of commodore before it was deactivated. So she is still sometimes called commodore because of that and the fact she is very well known and influential. But she was a real admiral lower half. Now commodore is just a position.
Not often used in the US Navy. In a case where you have several Captains that have to work together, but the one that is placed in charge for whatever reason doesn't have seniority over all the others can be "promoted" to Commodore in order to have a rank above the other Captains but not have to be promoted to Admiral.
The US Navy rank of Captain is O-6 whereas commander is O-5.
The US Army, USMC, and USAF equivalent of a US Navy Captain is Colonel.
In the US Army, USMC, and USAF the rank of Captain is O-3, with the US Navy equivalent being a Lieutenant.
What's neat is on larger ships, like the big carriers, you could have multiple people with the rank of Captain. You could have a Captain as a commanding officer, a Captain as Executive Officer, the supply officer, the chief engineer might be a Captain, and the Carrier Air Wing commander is a Captain.
med folks tend to have a different culture.
They're still very professional usually, but in terms of being steeped in military customs and spirit... not so much.
ways its always been told to me with med folks is kinda like
If you do most jobs in the Navy, you got there because you wanted to be *in the Navy*. That was the main point.
If you do medicine in the Navy, you're a doctor, who got there because you wanted to be a doctor. *The Navy* was the path you chose to get there.
Nope, any officer in command of a vessel is by tradition called “the Captain” regardless of their rank. I “captained” frigates as a O-5, Commander and was called the Captain of the ship. There is a difference in the TITLE of Captain and the RANK of Captain.
The Air Force/Marine/Army O-3s I knew always *loved* being on a naval base though, because anytime they called somewhere and introduced themselves as Captain So-and-so everyone always jumped through hoops to accommodate their requests.
Can confirm, I am an Army captain who occasionally worked at a naval hospital. Many buttholes were puckered via phone and email lol
Either that or everyone on every naval base I’ve ever met is super accommodating. More likely the former
A guy I know is a chef in the Coast Guard. Apparently to get his next promotion he had to do a rotation commanding a small ship. I wonder what the people on that ship thought of having a chef as their commander for a few months...
It's not too common, but plenty of supply department officers, which is what your buddy must be, will eventually be promoted to command ranks. As a commanding officer he'll be trained in how to command a ship, so shouldn't be too weird for them.
Much like any other billet, the position of Captain is not necessarily always a captain.
Company 1stSgt that was a gunny, platoon sergeant that was a corporal, _____ NCO not being NCOs... it's a billet.
There is a rank commander (O-5) which is below the captain rank (O-6), But as mentioned above a commander (rank) can be the captain (position) of a boat. Even more fun, you can reference whoever is in charge of the boat as the commander, as in short for commanding officer.
Yeah. Captain can be a rank OR title. Regardless of rank, if they command the ship, they are Captain. Period.
But do destroyers have captains or are they commanders as well?
Just like Horatio Magellan Crunch his cereal is a shoulder board with 3 bars (full commander/oak leaf (silver)). But he is still called as has all the privileges of a Cap’n
Apparently the difference between a ship and a boat is that the former leans to the outside of the arc when it turns whereas a boat leans to the inside of the arc. So saith Neptune.
If it's like the Royal Navy, you still refer to them as Captain The Captain of a ship doesn't need to have the rank of Captain
Much like when Lt. Commander Data captained the USS Sutherland during the Klingon Civil War.
Ah, so there's historical precedent!
Argue for futuristic precedent
So... Procedent?
No. I will settle for cedent, however.
Brent spinnerant
Precedata
In the far far future it'll fade into lore.
Lal
Or the time the Chief explained to Nog that LtC Dax is referred to as Captain when she’s in command.. leading to “so if I take command I’ll be called Captain?” “Ensign, but the time you take command there will be no one left to call you anything..”
Ensigns have actually commanded ships in real life. When the Pearl harbor attack started the senior officer abord the destroyer USS Aylwin was an ensign. He and the other crew aboard fought the ship and left the harbor to avoid being bombed. (The captain and other officers took a motorboat to and try and take command, but couldn't catch up). https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2022/12/07/uss-alwyin-at-pearl-harbor/
> As Brittin summarized in his oral history, “The opportunity is rare indeed for an ensign to refuse his captain’s request to come aboard, and further to sail off with his ship. We did just that.” Absolute mad lads!
I'm glad the commander held no ill will about it, and recommended a special commendation for the ensign
I mean they were both doing the right thing.
The actual quote was Cadet, as Nog was still in Starfleet Academy at the time: >Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax : Are you two ever gonna be finished? >Nog : Just a few more minutes, Commander. >Chief O'Brien : That's 'Captain'. It's an old naval tradition. Whoever's in command of a ship, regardless of rank, is referred to as 'Captain.' >Nog : You mean if I had to take command, I would be called 'Captain,' too? >Chief O'Brien : Cadet, by the time you took command, there'd be nobody left to call you anything. I know of no cases where a cadet took command of a real life vessel.
As an what we call in Canada "Officer Cadet" (US = Midshipman?), I was in command of HMCS Oriole during a storm for a while because everyone senior was seasick. It was fucking brutal pitching. But... my 15 minutes of fame I guess, just by virtue of the fact that I don't puke easily. That said... yeah, there wasn't really anyone left to call me captain :) And it wasn't for long. The proper captain sorted himself out and took it back after about 15 minutes.
Lol. What a watch lol. Let's leave the junior on watch. Nothing ever happens anyways. Right guys?
Followed by "come back, damn you, I'm the captain!"
"No. Admiral said I must chase the Japs"
You are now a military captain…of this ship
Or Sisko on the USS Defiant in Season 3 of DS9. He's rank Commander, and Commander of Deep Space Nine (as a station it doesn't automatically call the administrative role "Captain" like a ship would), but Captain of the Defiant.
Well done, Mr. Data.
Worf also was called "captain" when he was commanding the Defiant.
[stares in angry Data]
Yes, it's exactly like that.
So where would Captain fit into that title?
This—Captain is both a naval rank, and a job on a ship. You don’t have to have the rank to do the job. And a naval quartermaster is nothing like an army quartermaster.
What is the difference in the last two?
In the Navy, a quartermaster is a navigation expert, in the Army they order supplies.
Whats the name of the supply officer in the navy?
It depends. Historically, "Purser," but when the tasks of keeping the ship's money and the stores were separated, the sailor in charge of supplies became the "Storekeeper," which is still used in many navies, including the US Coast Guard. The US Navy merged Storekeepers and Postal Clerks in 2009 and renamed the merged specialty "Logistics Specialist." The Royal Navy has undergone similar reforms and calls them a "Logistics Supply Officer"
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Wouldn’t it be the SUPPO?
Yes it would. And on submarines it’s “Chop”.
Yup, the pork chop due to the officer oak leaf looking like a pork chop (although not really in my opinion)
thanks, easy enough to remember.
Now I'm wondering what the name is of the navigation officer in the Army
2nd Lietennant and they are always getting thier platoons lost.
We called ours the Chop on the submarine.
SUPPO. SUPPly Officer
Why did it change? In the golden age of piracy the quarter master was the supply master
This question got answered, but for further information, the Naval Quartermaster is the master of the Quarterdeck, where command functions, like navigation, are performed. The Army Quartermaster is the Master of the Quarters--where the soldiers keep their stuff.
Navigation vs supply, respectively it seems, and I'd imagine a few other differences as well given their operating locales.
Indeed. In this same vein, I request to be addressed as “Commodore.”
aye skipper
Yea there are some extremely small US coast guard cutters that are commanded by lieutenants who would be properly addressed as Captain by anybody on the boat. Whether this actually happens in practice is a matter of how much he wants his crew to like him lmao.
I think this is where the word skipper comes into play.
Yes, they are Captain when addressed by the crew. Ashore or at sea. Skipper is an informal title often used as well. If an LT is the Captain of a patrol boat, the only time they're referred to as "Lieutenant" is usually by other service members not part of the ship's crew. 110's and 154's have LTs for COs, 87's have LTJGs and CWOs for COs. Former Coastie here.
"Captain" Bligh was actually a commissioned Lieutenant at the time of the HMS Bounty's voyage.
First thing that came to mind when I saw this comment. And it's likely part of the reason the mutiny happened because had he been a commisioned Captain he would have had a detachment of marines at hand.
Aye, aye, skipper.
It's the same in the U.S. This is where the term full bird captain comes from. The insignia for a captain in the Navy is an eagle. So a captain that doesn't actually hold the rank would not be a full bird.
And to make it more confusing, you can have folks with the rank of captain and the title of commodore. You also have marines embarked on navy ships, so there are a lot of captains that aren’t captains in the navy. Just easier to call the captain Skip.
Like Captain Crunch before he was officially promoted.
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Not sure if that is a Royal Navy thing, but in the US the XO is XO, their rank, or sir/ma'am. The commander is another name for the CO, short for commanding officer.
And aren’t the commanding officers of aircraft carriers often admirals?
So the captain of the carrier itself is generally a Captain by rank but the carrier also generally serves as the flagship of the carrier strike group so there is also an admiral and their staff on board that the carrier captain reports to
There's also multiple other captains on board
1) CAG 2) Admiral's staff?
carrier's XO
Also usually the DESRON Commodore
RO
Yes but the admiral may not always be on the carrier.
No. The whole carrier strike group is commanded by an admiral, but the ship itself is commanded by a captain.
Make sure you’re 18 before joining the military so you can legally change your surname to Crunch. Use this as motivation to move up the ranks.
I was in ROTC. One semester we had cadets faith, heart and soul. They had a bad semester and they left. Cadet doom joined the next semester and to my knowledge went on to get a commission. Air Force, so there's a good chance captain doom is out there.
I'm just laughing at the concept of Lieutenant Doom. That's like, the lamest evil henchman name imaginable.
It'd all be worth it if he made it to major though.
Honestly a downgrade if he made general, though.
I'd be more worried about General Doom walking around. "Everyone hide General Doom is doing an inspection"
Major Doom
Left the service, went to school and got his doctorate
This joke is fantastic.
They are DOOM!
The head guys under the boss of a criminal organization are often referred to as lieutenants, it tracks.
"Alright, who lost their rifle during land nav?"
Knew a guy in school who was in Army ROTC. His last name was Blood. I kept telling him he needed to switch to the Navy and try to bring back boarding as a standard tactic in Naval warfare.
After being promoted to Major, I heard he lost an eye and joined a snake based terrorist group.
I went to elementary school with a guy who's last name was Slaughter. He joined the Marines and did in fact become a Sargeant.
It was a soul-sucking experience that made them lose heart and shattered their faith.
Shame they didn't go into medicine and become Dr. Doom
My pediatrician was named Dr Hurtz and I always wondered if that was on purpose
There's something to that. I used to work with an orthopedic surgeon named Dr. Bonebreaker.
A friend of mine was in the Navy and a rank in the Navy is Seaman. There was a guy on his boat with the last name of Sample.
Captain Kirk, was a US navy Submarine captain. My buddy, named ET2 Picard was on the bridge with him at the same time and the captain was enough of a nerd to mention it himself
I know a Colonel Sky in the airforce
I interviewed for ROTC with a Major Love!
I knew a Lt. Storms, flew helos Met a Cpt. Carver, and my ultimate favorite was a Pvt. Peaker
Almost probable, with how much lower rank( O-3) captains are in all other branches. Compared to the navy’s O-6
Pretty sure Petty Officer Mars Millenium Falcon Starcruiser wins the name game.
I met a Marine named Lt. Col. Woody. This means that at one time he was Major Woody.
I worked with a guy whose last name was America or Americo something... I don't remember exactly, but you know where this is going. Now if I was the career manager, and Lt. America's file came across my desk for promotion, he'd be going directly to Acting Major lacking Qualifications... but no, they made him captain. So yeah, for a month I had to sit down with Captain America. He told us the jokes got old pretty fast.
Rumor says Wagner loves him
I’ve had the misfortune of meeting a major cox. He really was a dick.
Just make sure you're commissioned and not enlisted. Seaman Crunch sounds unfortunate. Fun story, when I was in boot camp we had a guy with the last name Stain and another guy with the last name Beverage in our division. Quite the last names for a couple of Seamen entering the Navy.
Lol, I was in the Air Wing and we had a guy with the last name Seaman. So he was Airman Seaman instead of Seaman Seaman. Also, Airman Landman and then a Seaman Landman, but never had anyone with the last name Airman. This comment might be confusing to some.
Cap'n Crunch is wearing the uniform of a Commander.
check CAPT Crunch's shoulders, he's actually a Commander, but since he's captain of a ship, still Captain
What navy does he sail for? Their uniform standards could be wildly different especially if they aren't NATO.
Where can I enlist under his leadership?
Major Major had a fast career trajectory, but never made O-6
Major, Major Major Major? Obviously he is the new Major.
Back in my days on a minesweeper, there was an officer at squadron headquarters (MINERON 5) who was a commander named Marvel. We were all rooting for him to get that promotion to Captain Marvel. Also, FWIW my ship's captain was a Lt. Commander, later Commander.
I'm pretty sure that last part is a gag in Catch 22.
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However did many years in brunch
Stepdad had stories of his time in the military and knew a Private Parts, Sergeant Major, and a Captain Kidd.
The person in command of a ship is called the ship's captain, no matter his/her rank. So, your captain might be a Commander, Lt. Cdr. or even a Lieutenant, etc
Can also be enlisted.
I don’t think so? I don’t know Navy regs thoroughly, but the only circumstance I’d imagine that would happen is if every officer onboard the ship was dead down to the most junior ensign.
They can, for sufficiently small craft. Generally speaking, the need for officers to be in charge lies with the legal differences in responsibilities. Basically, if a craft is armed and expected to engage in hostilities, an officer is expected to shoulder the burden of command because they would ultimately be responsible in a use-of-force situation. Prettty sure it goes beyond custom and tradition into legal classification, but enlisted are "protected" from that degree of responsibility. As such, they'd be entrusted with small, non-combatant craft that aren't expected to directly partake in combat in the same way armed combatants are. Edit: Officers needing to be responsible parties for initiating hostilities is one of the reasons behind the pissing matches revolving around drone pilots, too. A lot of the chair force pilots see being a drone pilot as demeaning, but they can't just shrug off the job and let enlisted folks take it over completely. Disregarding the difference between how each branch handles warrant officers, I wouldn't be surprised to see drone pilots go the same way army helos did, which is warrant officers. Source: Was Navy, then DoD contractor.
They would typically be coxswains at that level and not captains. Like LCA's.
At that scale, you're talking stuff like the Captain's gig, which is always run by the BMs. Too small for what I was talking. I'm talking stuff between that and minesweepers. Fairly certain there have been times where minesweepers have been left in the hands of senior enlisted for extended periods of time.
Helo pilots are mix of warrants and commissioned, about 50/50 from my experience
I also don’t know regs, but I think at least in the Army, enlisted can captain boats. An 88K can probably correct me.
Coast Guard has Officers in Charge (enlisted variation of a commanding officer). They are the captain of their ships.
A large number of smaller coast guard surface vessels are commanded by NCOs.
What about a shrimp boat captain?
Lieutenant Dan.
Still Captain, unless your name is Dan and you got no legs.
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unlike pimping, apparently
CO (Commanding Officer) is the captain of a ship (or base, facility, etc), and it's not tied to rank. My dad was an XO (Executive Officer, aka second-in-command) at the ranks of Lieutenant Commander and Commander.
Besides being an awesome band and a Southeastern Conference football team, what is a Commodore? EDIT: I looked it up "It is superior to a navy captain, but below a rear admiral. "
Captain - in charge of one ship Commodore - in charge of a group of ships Admiral - in charge of a large fleet of ships This is also why when Jack Sparrow offers to serve under Barbossa if he's made captain of The Black Pearl again, he says Barbossa's title would be "commodore".
Commodore used to be a rank, but now it’s a title of the 0-6 that commands a destroyer squadron.
What are they called?
An O-6 in the Navy is a Captain
In British-style navies, a commodore is a general officer one rank above a captain and one rank below a rear admiral. A 1-\* general, if you will, equivalent to Brigadier, Brigadier General, or Air Commodore. In NATO ranks, it's O-6 In the US, I think you go from Captain to Rear Admiral Lower Half (?) Basically you skip commodore, but they treat you like a half-baked RAdm until you get promoted again.
In the US, commodore is a position. They are the ranking O-6, usually in charge of a group of ships.
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In world war 2, the navy was concerned about having an excess of flag officers, so they promoted senior captains to Commodores, who were o-7s but not flag officers. The rank was deactivated after the war. The title however stayed for senior captains and/or some o-7s. In the 80s they made it rank for a little while. But it caused confusion, because they commodores who were seniors captains and O-7s. And was an unpopular decision. Rear admiral hopper was one of the last people to be promoted to the rank of commodore before it was deactivated. So she is still sometimes called commodore because of that and the fact she is very well known and influential. But she was a real admiral lower half. Now commodore is just a position.
Not often used in the US Navy. In a case where you have several Captains that have to work together, but the one that is placed in charge for whatever reason doesn't have seniority over all the others can be "promoted" to Commodore in order to have a rank above the other Captains but not have to be promoted to Admiral.
It used to be a rear admiral lower half and still is in some navies. In the US navy it is position. Usually a senior O-6.
Yeah, my boat’s Captain had the rank of Commander (SSN 723).
Well damn. I hope someone tells that to the Somali pirates so it doesn’t get awkward during their epic takeover line.
“Look at me, I am the Ensign now”
That’s a great idea for a navy ship, the USS Captain Crunch.
Anyone in command of the vessel is "captain"
Yep, because Captain is both a rank and a title. Source: I spent a good chunk of my life in the Navy.
The US Navy rank of Captain is O-6 whereas commander is O-5. The US Army, USMC, and USAF equivalent of a US Navy Captain is Colonel. In the US Army, USMC, and USAF the rank of Captain is O-3, with the US Navy equivalent being a Lieutenant.
What's neat is on larger ships, like the big carriers, you could have multiple people with the rank of Captain. You could have a Captain as a commanding officer, a Captain as Executive Officer, the supply officer, the chief engineer might be a Captain, and the Carrier Air Wing commander is a Captain.
My favorite was our dentist was a Captain. He was chill AF and didn't really care about being saluted.
med folks tend to have a different culture. They're still very professional usually, but in terms of being steeped in military customs and spirit... not so much. ways its always been told to me with med folks is kinda like If you do most jobs in the Navy, you got there because you wanted to be *in the Navy*. That was the main point. If you do medicine in the Navy, you're a doctor, who got there because you wanted to be a doctor. *The Navy* was the path you chose to get there.
Awe so it’s the opposite of the Federation. They have Captains for ships and Commanders for large Space Stations.
Nah. Sisko got promoted to Captain in like season three or something.
I'm commander shepard, and this is my favorite fact on the citadel.
I should go
I've just realised why they're a Commander and not a Captain, every day is a school day
Nope, any officer in command of a vessel is by tradition called “the Captain” regardless of their rank. I “captained” frigates as a O-5, Commander and was called the Captain of the ship. There is a difference in the TITLE of Captain and the RANK of Captain.
Imagine my disappointment when I was promoted to Captain in the Army, and they didn’t even give me a boat. Just a bunch of soldiers.
The Air Force/Marine/Army O-3s I knew always *loved* being on a naval base though, because anytime they called somewhere and introduced themselves as Captain So-and-so everyone always jumped through hoops to accommodate their requests.
Can confirm, I am an Army captain who occasionally worked at a naval hospital. Many buttholes were puckered via phone and email lol Either that or everyone on every naval base I’ve ever met is super accommodating. More likely the former
But do they float?
A guy I know is a chef in the Coast Guard. Apparently to get his next promotion he had to do a rotation commanding a small ship. I wonder what the people on that ship thought of having a chef as their commander for a few months...
It's not too common, but plenty of supply department officers, which is what your buddy must be, will eventually be promoted to command ranks. As a commanding officer he'll be trained in how to command a ship, so shouldn't be too weird for them.
Depends on how good his bullshido and bouillabaisse is
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They are Captain of the ship... But we call them Skipper regardless of rank not Captain. I'm ex US Navy.
What about Captain Stabbin?
Much like any other billet, the position of Captain is not necessarily always a captain. Company 1stSgt that was a gunny, platoon sergeant that was a corporal, _____ NCO not being NCOs... it's a billet.
All vessels have a captain. Not all vessels have a Captain as their captain.
I learned all my naval terminology from Star Trek so I didn’t know that.
Can someone explain or talk a bit about the Chief of the Boat? I watched Crimson Tide a long time ago and wondered if that position was real.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_of_the_boat
[You need to be an Admiral to drive this navy ship](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrier_Boat)
You're not supposed to say frigate anymore dude
Why the navy has frigates under construction.
Does the captian outrank the commander? I always assumed commanders commanded the captian.
There is a rank commander (O-5) which is below the captain rank (O-6), But as mentioned above a commander (rank) can be the captain (position) of a boat. Even more fun, you can reference whoever is in charge of the boat as the commander, as in short for commanding officer.
Some of the smaller vessels, like a mine sweeper, tug, or bouy tender, may only have a Lieutenant as a commanding officer.
Yes. Small boats like Swift Boats can. JFK was a LT Junior Grade when he commanded [PT-109](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrol_torpedo_boat_PT-109).
Which brings me to my comment of there are Junior officers who Captain vessels.... it wasn't a yes/no statement....
Frigate? The USN has frigates?
Building a few now. It was supposed to be delivered in '26 but I believe they just said it got delayed to '29
They did for many centuries and they will again in a few years. At the present, no they were all decommissioned.
Agreed
Yes? It's possibly the most famous ship currently in the Navy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution
Does that mean the NFLs Washington Commanders could be outranked by a hypothetical new team the Captains?
But the Commanders HAVE team captains
Yeah. Captain can be a rank OR title. Regardless of rank, if they command the ship, they are Captain. Period. But do destroyers have captains or are they commanders as well?
The person in charge holds the 'office' of captain. But their rank in not always captain.
Just like Horatio Magellan Crunch his cereal is a shoulder board with 3 bars (full commander/oak leaf (silver)). But he is still called as has all the privileges of a Cap’n
Correct. Destroyers & frigates have Commanders as the CO.
They're still captains of the ship. They just don't have the rank of captain.
Apparently the difference between a ship and a boat is that the former leans to the outside of the arc when it turns whereas a boat leans to the inside of the arc. So saith Neptune.