Commodore admiral

Commodore Admiral (COMO) was a short lived military rank of the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard that existed for less than 11 months during the year 1982.^[1] The rank of Commodore Admiral was established as the Navy's one-star admiral rank after nearly forty years of all Navy and Coast Guard Captains receiving promotion directly to the two-star position of Rear Admiral, but still being paid as a one-star officer in the pay grade of O-7 while in a "Rear Admiral, lower half" category.

The new rank of Commodore Admiral was created both as a means to appease the other three branches of the U.S. military, who felt promoting USN and USCG O-6s to O-7, yet entitling them to wear the insignia of an O-8 was unfair, and also as a means of distinguishing that Navy and Coast Guard one-star admirals were in fact flag officers. This had been a major problem in World War II when cultural mistakes had led to several Navy Commodores being regarded as senior captains by members of foreign militaries and in turn denied honors due to a U.S. flag officer.

Upon its establishment, many in the leadership of the US Navy and US Coast Guard felt that the rank of Commodore Admiral violated over a century of tradition and there were numerous petitions to the Chief of Naval Operations to eliminate the rank. As a compromise, the rank of Commodore Admiral was changed simply to "Commodore" at the start of 1983. However, this change caused even further problems internal to the Navy due to those senior Captains commanding multiple units, those in charge air wings and air groups, destroyer squadrons, submarine squadrons, etc., having had the honorary title of "Commodore" for decades. Plus many Commodore Admirals found that their mail was being redirected to the base Officer's club, also known as the Commissioned Officer's Mess (aka COMO). As a result, the "rank" of Commodore in the USN and USCG was itself was abolished as a rank in 1985. It was replaced by the new rank of Rear Admiral (Lower Half), essentially the same title as before dating back to before World War II. However, in this case, those officers promoted to O-7 with this title would continue to wear one-star insignia.

The rank of Commodore Admiral is one of the rarest ranks in the history of United States Navy and United States Coast Guard. Only a handful of officers, mainly those Captains promoted to O-7 during the year 1982, have ever held the position, such as Admiral Leon A. Edney, when promoted while serving as the Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. Another famous example was that of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper.^[2]

References

Bibliography

• Office of the Law Revision Counsel, United States. Congress. House. United States Code, Washington: The Office, 2001.

United States uniformed services commissioned officer and officer candidate ranks
Pay grade / branch of service	Officer candidate	O-1	O-2	O-3	O-4	O-5	O-6	O-7	O-8	O-9	O-10	O-11 (Obs.)	Special grade
Approximate insignia[1][2]													[2]
Army	CDT / OC	2LT	1LT	CPT	MAJ	LTC	COL	BG	MG	LTG	GEN	GA[3]	GAS[3]
Marine Corps	Midn / Cand	2ndLt	1stLt	Capt	Maj	LtCol	Col	BGen	MajGen	LtGen	Gen	[5]	[5]
Navy	MIDN / OC	ENS	LTJG	LT	LCDR	CDR	CAPT	RDML	RADM	VADM	ADM	FADM[3]	AN[3]
Air Force	Cadet / OT / OC	2d Lt	1st Lt	Capt	Maj	Lt Col	Col	Brig Gen	Maj Gen	Lt Gen	Gen	GAF[3]	[5]
Coast Guard	CDT / OC	ENS	LTJG	LT	LCDR	CDR	CAPT	RDML	RADM	VADM	ADM	[5]	[5]
Public Health Service	[OC]	ENS	LTJG	LT	LCDR	CDR	CAPT	RADM	RADM	VADM	ADM	[5]	[5]
NOAA Corps	OC	ENS	LTJG	LT	LCDR	CDR	CAPT	RDML	RADM	VADM	[4]	[5]	[5]
[1] No universal insignia for officer candidate rank; Navy candidate insignia shown [2]Unofficial 1945 proposal for General of the Armies insignia; John J. Pershing's GAS insignia: ; George Dewey's AN insignia: [3] Rank used for specific officers in wartime only, not permanent addition to rank structure [4] Grade is authorized by the U.S. Code for use but has not been created [5] Grade has never been created or authorized