Re: [Service] Ranks and Designations

Hi folks,

>
>Of course, Canada could well do its own thing, as they have, for 
>instance, in introducing Master Corporal/Bombadiers and using the Yank 
>"Brigadier General"... but I was curious.
>
>What ranks do the Canadian Air Force use these days?

Somone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I thought "Brigadier General"
*was* an old British army rank.  As I understood it, "back in the day"
(late '50's, early '60's maybe) there were public complaints that the
British military was too top-heavy with "Flag" ranks.  So, Brigadier
General was reduced to Brigadier, and *presto*, all those people were no
longer "Generals".  Is that right?

Here's another one for you:  "Rear Admiral (Upper Half)" and "Rear
Admiral
(Lower Half)" in US parlance.  These designate the two lowest level of
Admiral, correspoding to to Major General and Brigadier General.  I've
read
that during WWII the US Navy Rear Admirals (Lower Half) wore two stars,
which caused confusion when they could be outranked (in terms of
time-in-rank) by an army one star Brigadier General - who would get
mightely annoyed at saluting someone actually junior to them.... The
term
"Commodore" was used to refer to the commander of a naval force composed
of
ships where the senior ranking officer was a Captain (the rank, not the
position).  It has been used in other circumstances too, but IIRC in
British and US parlance, was an "appointment", the same way "Regimental
Sergeant Major" is an appointment for someone whose actual rank is Chief
Warrent Officer (in both the Brit and Canadian armies) but who is
serving
in the position of RSM.  The Canadian military decided to get rid of all
the confusion between admirals of various halves, and now "Commodore" is
the official *rank* of 1-star (actually 1-maple-leaf - our  Flag rank
officers have maple leaf symbols where US flag rank officers wear a
star)
admirals.  So, the Canadian naval flag officer ranks are: 

Commodore
Rear Admiral
Vice Admiral
Admiral

and all confusion is removed.  Except, of course, when we deal with
navies
who still use "Commodore" as a title for an appointment...

In answer to Phil's question, the Canadian airforce uses identical ranks
to
the Canadian army (well, the "usual" army ranks... "Corporal", "Master
Corporal", "Sergeant" and so on... no "Troopers" or "Bombadiers" in the
airforce....). 

Here's another unusual (read: kinda trivial, but sorta interesting)
situation.  I think I read about this in "Peacekeeper: The Road to
Sarajevo" by Major General Lewis MacKenzie.  One of the NATO armies (I
believe it is the Dutch or the Danes, but I'm not sure) doesn't usually
have 1-star flag rank officers.  They start them off at "Major General"
or
"Vice Admiral" and don't have the "Brigadier General" rank.  The
situation
arose where this nation was sending one of its' officers (a full
Colonel)
for a posting with the UN force in (Bosnia?), and the position was one
listed normally for a Brigadier General.  The country didn't want to
lose
the position (having their nation represented), so by a special act of
their parliament they temporarily created the rank of Brigadier General
and
promoted the Colonel, for the duration of his appointment to the UN
position - at the end of which he would have either been promoted to
Major
General or reduced to Colonel...  

***************************************

Adrian Johnson
adrian@stargrunt.ca
http://www.stargrunt.ca

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