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Imperial Insignia: Nomenclature

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• Rank Table
  • Notes
• Verbal Address

Below I tabulate the military titles of the English language, adapted from various references on etiquette (eg. Titles and Forms of Address - A guide to their correct use; Collins Australian Pocket English Dictionary : military ranks), removing or adjusting terms which are geocentric or superfluous to the STAR WARS milieu. Seniority increases towards the top of the table; levels on the same row of the table are of equal status. The upper section consists of commissioned ranks; the lower section is non-commissioned.

American departures from international English terminology are reconciled with the usual system and noted as grey ammendments, intermediates and equivalent alternatives. It should be noted that the air forces of the USA actually originated within that country's army, which accounts for the confusing, anomalous and continuing use of army ranks. However the use of the ordinary air force ranks of Wing Commander and Squadron Leader in the canon as early as A New Hope supports the international English interpretation.

NAVY			ARMY			FIGHTER

High Admiral		Surface Marshal		High Marshal?

Fleet Admiral		High General		Force Marshal

Admiral			General			Chief Marshal

Vice-Admiral		Lieutenant-General	Marshal

Rear-Admiral		Major-General		Vice-Marshal

Commodore		Brigadier-General	Commodore

Line Captain		High Colonel		-

Captain			Colonel			Group Captain

Commander		Lieutenant-Colonel	Wing Commander

Lieutenant-Commander	Major			Squadron Leader

Lieutenant		Captain			Flight Lieutenant

Sub-Lieutenant		First Lieutenant	Flying Officer

Acting Sub-Lieutenant	Second Lieutenant	Pilot Officer

Midshipman/Ensign	-			-


Fleet Chief Petty Off.  Warrant Officer I       Warrant Officer
= Warrant Officer				= Chief Master Sgt.

Master Chief Petty Off.	Army Sgt.Major		Chief Master Sgt.
			= Command Sgt.Major
			= Sergeant Major

Senior Chief Petty Off.	1st Sergeant		Senior Master Sgt.
			= Master Sgt.

Chief Petty Officer     Warrant Officer II      Master Sergeant
			= Sergeant I

-                       Staff Corporal          Flight Sergeant
						

Petty Officer I         Staff Sergeant          Chief Technician
						= Technical Sergeant

Petty Officer II	Sergeant		Staff Sergeant

Leading Crewman         Corporal                Corporal
= Petty Officer III				

-                       -                       Junior Technician

-                       -                       Senior Spacecraftsman
						= Senior Spaceman

Able Crewman            Lance Corporal          Leading Spacecraftsman
= Crewman		= Private I		= Spaceman I

Ordinary Crewman        Private                 Spacecraftsman
= Crewman Apprentice				= Spaceman

Crewman Recruit		Private			Spaceman Basic
= Junior Crewman

• Starfighter titles:
  Most of the military titles for fighter forces are heavily geocentric, involving references to "air" and other phenomena which are specific to pre-space flight. For adaptation to STAR WARS I replace or strip off these parts of the terms. "Spaceman" could be used as a concise alternative to "spacecraftsman." However a character called Air Marshal Von Asch in SW Tales #5 has a fully terrestrial title.
• Pilots:
  Only commissioned officers in the starfighter force actually fly fighters. Non-commissioned personnel engage in starfighter support activity.
• Fleet Admiral:
  identical to "Admiral of the Fleet" on Earth. The form used here eliminates superfluous words.
• Surface Marshal:
  an adaptation of "Field Marshal" on Earth; this term was introduced in The Imperial Sourcebook.
• High General & High Admiral:
  Ranks explicitly introduced in The Imperial Sourcebook; they are inserted into the general convention because STAR WARS naval and military forces are larger in scope than Earthly equivalents, thus requiring more levels of higher officers. By an ideal symmetry they look as if they ought to be at the same level (and on another level a Surface Marshal should equal a Fleet Admiral), but the Imperial Sourcebook swaps them.
• High Marshal:
  conjectural higher starfighter force rank, based on extrapolation from naval practice; equivalent to naval High Admiral.
• Line Captain & High Colonel:
  unusual navy and army officer ranks inserted above [naval] Captain and Colonel by The Imperial Sourcebook; they are probably at the same level as each other, which is synonymous with or junior to a Commodore or Brigadier.
• Midshipman / Ensign:
  These two terms refer to the most junior commissioned naval officers, who have finished their academy training and are earning experience aboard an active warship. A "midshipman" may also refer to a naval officer cadet who has no space experience and is still studying at his academy; however the term "ensign" is never applied to such a trainee. [This is a consolidation of American and non-American terminology, both of which are used in the STAR WARS literature.]
• Staff Corporal:
  not in widespread use; non-standard.
• Staff Sergeant / Sergeant Major:
  A "staff sergeant" may sometimes be called a "sergeant major" (an American variation of common English terminology). The latter term is used in The Imperial Sourcebook for the subofficer who is second-in-command of a platoon.
• [Lance] Corporal:
  In artillery units a Corporal is known as a Bombardier, and a Lance Corporal as a Lance Bombardier.
• Private:
  Some specialist army units use alternative ranks equivalent to Private: Trooper in armoured units; Gunner in artillery; Signalman in signals; Musician in bands; etc.
• Starfighters & Army:
  When fighter operations are temporarily dependent on the Army's surface bases, pilots sometimes use equivalent army ranks in verbal forms of address. The army Captain title applied to a Flight Lieutenant should never be confused with the superior starfighter rank of Group Captain, which equates to a naval Captain or an army Colonel. [This seems to be the only charitable explanation for the occasional use of "captain" for a pilot officer inferior to a Commander in certain comics, novels and computer games. Ditto for any application of "major", "colonel" or "general" to pilots.]

The rank titles tabulated above are those used in a Sector Group. This is the gathered total of the Empire's naval and military forces assigned to a particular sector of space. Sectors are political regions defined so that they encompass several hunderd to several thousand inhabited worlds, and several million systems without permanent settlement.

The supreme commander of a Sector Group is a Moff, the military official who governs the sector politically as well as martially. Higher commands are given to Grand Moffs, who possess the equivalent of several sector groups for the purpose of pacifying temporary territories called Priority Sectors. These regions are composed of adjacent parts of one or more sectors where rebellion, piracy or organised crime are rife. More than a tenth of the Empire's armed forces are kept in reserve in the Galactic Core without attachment to any particular regional government. These forces are at the disposal of the Emperor, the twelve Grand Admirals or for deployment in elite roving commands such as those of Lord Darth Vader and Admiral Giel.

There are more possible combinations of the insignia units than there are realistic ranks. Therefore the Imperial officer rank plaque/cylinder insignia system provides enough flexibility to distinguish fine shades of seniority between officers of the same rank, and in some circumstances intermediate rank titles may be formally used. Alternatively, the choice of plaque configuration used to represent a given rank may be dictated by aesthetic regulations specific to local units, or may reflect an individual officer's history of promotion.

Naval officers ranking as Rear-Admiral or higher are addressed as "Admiral". An Acting Sub-Lieutenant is addressed as "Sub-Lieutenant", and use of the "Acting" prefix is impolite except in formal naval communications. Midshipmen, ensigns and naval Warrant Officers are addressed as "Mr", "Ms" or an equivalent. Other naval officers and personnel are addressed simply by their literal rank.

Army officers ranking as Major-General or above are verbally addressed as "General" A Lieutenant-Colonel is addressed as "Colonel". An army Lieutenant or 2nd Lieutenant is addressed as "Mr", "Ms" or an equivalent. Warrant Officers of first and second class are addressed as "Warrant Officer". Other army officers and personnel are addressed according to their literal rank.

Starfighter officers ranking as Vice-Marshal or higher are addressed as "Marshal". Flying Officers and Pilot Officers are addressed as "Mr", "Ms" or an equivalent. All other starfighter officers and personnel are addressed according to literal rank.

Commodores and brigadiers arguably could be addressed as "Admiral" and "General", but this would be considered highly informal. [This would accommodate the American identification of commodores and brigadiers with one-star admirals and one-star generals.]

This page was constructed and is maintained by Curtis Saxton <saxton@physics.usyd.edu.au>.
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