United States Navy officer rank insignia

In the United States Navy, officers have various ranks. Equivalency between services is by pay grade. United States Navy commissioned officer ranks have two distinct sets of rank insignia: on dress uniform a series of stripes similar to Commonwealth naval ranks are worn, while on service khaki, working uniforms (Navy Working Uniform [NWU], and coveralls), and special uniform situations (combat utilities, flight suits, and USMC uniforms when worn by Navy officers assigned or attached to USMC units), the rank insignia are similar (there are subtle differences in the size, shape, and design of naval services insignia) to the equivalent rank in the US Army or US Air Force.

Commissioned officer ranks

Commissioned officer rank structure of the United States Navy^[1]

US DoD Pay Grade	O-1	O-2	O-3	O-4	O-5	O-6	O-7	O-8	O-9	O-10	Special	Special
NATO Code	OF-1	OF-1	OF-2	OF-3	OF-4	OF-5	OF-6	OF-7	OF-8	OF-9	OF-10	Special Grade
Insignia
Title	Ensign	Lieutenant (junior grade)[2][3]	Lieutenant	Lieutenant Commander	Commander	Captain	Rear Admiral (lower half)	Rear Admiral[2][3]	Vice Admiral	Admiral	Fleet Admiral[lower-alpha 1]	Admiral of the Navy[lower-alpha 2]
Abbreviation	ENS	LTJG	LT	LCDR	CDR	CAPT	RDML	RADM	VADM	ADM	FADM	AN

Commissioned warrant officer ranks

Commissioned warrant officer

US DoD Pay Grade	W-2	W-3	W-4	W-5
NATO Code	WO-2	WO-3	WO-4	WO-5
Insignia
Title	Chief Warrant Officer Two	Chief Warrant Officer Three	Chief Warrant Officer Four	Chief Warrant Officer Five
Abbreviation	CWO-2	CWO-3	CWO-4	CWO-5

Rank categories

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

• W-2 to W-5 for chief warrant officers. Chief warrant officers (CWO2–CWO5) are commissioned officers.

Note 1: The Navy does not currently use pay grade WO-1, Warrant Officer. A warrant officer (WO-1) is an officer, but not a commissioned officer. Warrant officers (W-1) are "appointed" to their grade with a "warrant" in lieu of a commission while Chief Warrant Officers in the Navy are "commissioned" as warrant officers. The Army and Marine Corps currently appoint warrant officers to this pay grade.

• O-1 to O-10 for unrestricted line, restricted line, or staff corps officers:
  • O-1 through O-4 are junior officers: ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant, and lieutenant commander. In practice, Lieutenant Commanders are not considered junior officers.
  • O-5 and O-6 are senior officers: commander and captain.
  • O-7 through O-10 are flag officers: rear admiral (lower half) (one star), rear admiral (two star), vice admiral (three star), and admiral (four star).^[4][5]
• O-11 was the temporary flag officer rank of fleet admiral (five star). It was awarded to four officers during World War II, and has not been authorized since. However, the rank of Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy still remains listed on official rank insignia precedence charts and, if needed, this rank could be reestablished at the discretion of Congress and the President. All five-star officers are, technically, unable to retire from active duty.^[6] The last living Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy, Chester W. Nimitz, died in 1966.

Rank and promotion system

In the event that officers demonstrate superior performance and prove themselves capable of performing at the next higher pay grade, they are given an increase in pay grade. The official term for this process is a promotion.

Commissioned naval officers originate from the United States Naval Academy, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, other Service Academies (United States Military Academy or United States Air Force Academy), Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC), Officer Candidate School (OCS), the since-disestablished Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS), and a host of other commissioning programs such as the "Seaman to Admiral-21" program and the limited duty officer/chief warrant officer (LDO/CWO) selection program. There are also a small number of direct commissioned officers, primarily staff corps officers in the medical, dental, nurse, chaplain and judge advocate general career fields.

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

• Line officers (or officers of the line) derive their name from the 18th-century tactic of employing warships in a line of battle to take advantage of cannon on each side of the ship. These vessels were dubbed ships of the line and those who commanded them were likewise called "line officers." Today, all United States Navy unrestricted line and restricted line officers denote their status with a star located above their rank insignia on the sleeves of their dress blue uniforms and shoulder boards of their white uniforms; metal rank insignia devices on both collar-points of khaki shirts/blouses; and cloth equivalents on both collar-points of blue NWUs. Officers of the staff corps replace the star (or the left collar-point on applicable shirts/blouses) with different insignias to indicate their field of specialty.^[7] Line officers can be categorized into unrestricted and restricted communities.
  • Unrestricted line officers (URL) the most visible and well-known of line officers, due to their role as the Navy's war-fighting command element. They receive training in weapons systems, tactics, strategy, command and control, and are considered unrestricted because they are authorized to command combatant ships, combat aviation squadrons/air groups/air wings, and special operations units at sea, or combat aviation squadrons/air groups/air wings or special operations units deployed ashore.
  • Restricted line officers (RL) concentrate on non-combat related fields, which include marine engineering, aeronautical engineering, ship maintenance, aircraft maintenance, meteorology and oceanography, naval intelligence, information technology, manpower/human resources, public affairs, and a host of other career fields. They are not qualified to command combat units, but can command organizations in their respective specialized career fields. In certain shipboard environments, many unrestricted line officers fill what might be considered restricted line duties, such as the officers in a ship's or submarine's engineering department. Because they maintain their general surface warfare or submarine warfare specialist duties instead of completely specializing in one career area, they maintain their unrestricted line command career path.
• Staff corps officers are specialists in fields that are themselves professional careers and not exclusive to the military, for example health care, law, civil engineering and religion. There are eight staff corps: Medical Corps, Dental Corps, Nurse Corps, Medical Service Corps, Chaplain Corps, Navy Supply Corps, Judge Advocate General's Corps, and Civil Engineer Corps. They primarily exist to augment the line communities and are able to be assigned to both line and staff commands. One exception to this is the case of Civil Engineer Corps officers, who serve as the both Public Works Officers and Resident Officers in Charge of Construction (ROICC) at naval shore installations, and as officers for Construction Battalion (Seabee) units. This latter role requires them to serve in a command capacity for ground combatants when the Seabees are deployed to combat areas.

Note 2: See also Commodore (United States) — today an honorific title (but not a pay grade) for selected URL captains (O-6) in major command of multiple subordinate operational units, and formerly a rank (O-7).^[8]

Note 3: The term "line officer of the naval service" includes line officers of both the Navy and the Marine Corps. All U.S. Marine Corps officers are considered "of the line," including Marine Corps limited duty officers, chief warrant officers, and warrant officers, regardless of grade or specialty.^[9]

"Tombstone promotions"

The Act of Congress of March 4, 1925, provided for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard officers to be promoted one grade upon retirement, if they had been specially commended for performance of duty in actual combat. Combat citation promotions were sometimes called "tombstone promotions" by disgruntled officers who did not qualify for them, but the term was not used by the recipients. These promotions conferred all the perks and prestige of the higher rank, including the loftier title, but no additional retirement pay. The Act of Congress of February 23, 1942, enabled promotions to three- and four-star grades. Tombstone promotions were subsequently restricted to citations issued before January 1, 1947, and finally eliminated altogether effective November 1, 1959.^[10] The practice was terminated as part of an effort to encourage senior flag officer retirements prior to the effective date of the change to relieve an over-strength in the senior ranks.

Any officer who served honorably in a grade while on active duty receives precedence on the retirement list over any "tombstone officer" holding the same retired grade. Tombstone officers ranked among each other according to their dates of rank in their highest active duty grade.^[11]

Officer specialty devices

Navy officers serve either as a line officer or as a staff corps officer. Unrestricted Line (URL) and Restricted Line (RL) officers wear an embroidered gold star above their rank of the naval service dress uniform while staff corps officers, and chief warrant officers wear unique specialty devices.^[12][13]

Type	Line officer	Medical Corps	Dental Corps	Nurse Corps	Medical Service Corps	Judge Advocate General's Corps
Insignia
Designator1	1XXX	210X	220X	290X	230X	250X
Chaplain Corps (Christian Faith)	Chaplain Corps (Jewish Faith)	Chaplain Corps (Muslim Faith)	Chaplain Corps (Buddhist Faith)	Supply Corps	Civil Engineer Corps	Law Community (Limited Duty Officer)
410X	410X	410X	410X	310X	510X	655X
1 An officer designator describes their general community or profession. The final (fourth) digit (X) denotes whether the officer has a regular (0), reserve (5), or full-time support (7) commission.[14]

The chief warrant officer and staff corps devices are also worn on the left collar of uniforms.

See also

• Badges of the United States Navy
• List of Naval Officer Designators
• List of United States Navy staff corps
• Naval officer ranks—comparison to other countries and explanation of NATO rank codes
• Navy Enlisted Classification
• Scrambled egg (uniform) shows differences in hats
• Staff (military)
• Uniforms of the United States Navy
• U.S. Navy midshipman rank insignia can be found in the Midshipman article.
• U.S. Navy warrant officer rank insignia can be found in the Warrant officer (United States) article.
• United States Navy enlisted rate insignia

Notes

Footnotes

References

External links

• Chapter 4, Section 1: Officer Rank Insignia of the Bureau of Personnel Uniform Regulations
• Department of Defense Rank Insignias — Officers Rank
• U.S. Navy Office of Information
• Official List of United States Military Rank Insignia

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
Insignia	[1]			[6]					[6]	[6]	[6]		[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]
PHS Corps	[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]Official 1945 proposal for General of the Armies insignia; John J. Pershing's GAS insignia: ; George Dewey's Admiral of the Navy 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 [6] USAF and U.S. Army insignia shown

United States warrant officer ranks
	W-1	W-2	W-3	W-4	W-5
Army	WO1	CW2	CW3	CW4	CW5
Marine Corps	WO1	CWO2	CWO3	CWO4	CWO5
Navy	WO1[1]	CWO2	CWO3	CWO4	CWO5
Air Force	WO1[1]	CWO2[1]	CWO3[1]	CWO4[1]	CWO5[1]
Coast Guard	WO1[1]	CWO2	CWO3	CWO4	[2]
PHS Corps	[2]	[2]	[2]	[2]	[3]
NOAA Corps	[3]	[3]	[3]	[3]	[3]
[1] Grade inactive [2] Grade is authorized for use by U.S. Code but has not been created [3] Grade never created or authorized