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(U) The A-B-Cs of Determining an Officer's Rank (repost)
FROM: (U//FOUO)
SIGINT Communications (S02C)
Run Date: 11/21/2006
(U) Civilians: do you know how to spot a military member's rank?
(U) Each rank in the US military has its own insignia. For the warrant officer and enlisted ranks,
these insignia differ from one Service to the next, which makes for quite a few different
variables. Luckily (for beginners), insignia for commissioned officers are the same across
all of the military Services, and therefore are a good place to start.
(U) There are a total of 10 commissioned officer pay grades, O-1 (the lowest) through O-10 (the
highest). Each pay grade has a unique insignia associated with it, as you'll see below. These
insignia are worn on the collar and (depending on the Service and the uniform) on shoulder
epaulettes.
(U) Note, however, that within the pay grades, the rank titles vary: for officers, one title is
used by the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, and another title is used by the Navy and Coast
Guard. Note also that the insignia for O-1/O-2, and for O-4/O-5 are the same except for their
color. In both cases, the silver represents a higher rank than the gold.
Commissioned Officers
Rank Insignia
Company-Grade Officers :
O-1 Insignia: Single gold bar
Second Lieutenant (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps) or
Ensign (Navy/Coast Guard)
O-2 Insignia: Single silver bar
First Lieutenant (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps) or
Lieutenant Junior Grade (Navy/Coast Guard)
O-3 Insignia: Double silver bars
Captain (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps) or
Lieutenant (Navy/Coast Guard)
Field-Grade Officers :
O-4 Insignia: Gold oak leaf
Major (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps) or
Lieutenant Commander (Navy/Coast Guard)
O-5 Insignia: Silver oak leaf
Lieutenant Colonel (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps) or
Commander (Navy/Coast Guard)
O-6 Insignia: Silver eagle
Colonel (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps) ( informally called a "full, bird Colonel ") or
Captain (Navy/Coast Guard) (Note that a Navy or Coast Guard Captain (O-6) is a higher rank
than a Captain in the other Services (O-3).)
Flag Officers (often referred to as "one-star," "two-star," etc.):
O-7 Insignia: One silver star
Brigadier General (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps) or
Rear Admiral [Lower Half] (Navy/Coast Guard)
O-8 Insignia: Two silver stars
Major General (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps) or
Rear Admiral [Upper Half] (Navy/Coast Guard)
O-9 Insignia: Three silver stars
Lieutenant General (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps) or
Vice Admiral (Navy/Coast Guard)
O-10 Insignia: Four silver stars
General (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps) or
Admiral (Navy/Coast Guard)
(U) Naval and Coast Guard officers wear additional "sleeve-type" insignia on some of their
uniforms, which we won't get into here. For details on that, see the document Rank Recognition
in a Joint Service Environment , from which this article is derived.
(U) For more on military basics, see the following SID today articles:
(U) The A-B-Cs of Military Protocol
(U) Rank Abbreviations
(U) What Is a J-2?
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108