Military Ranks (RDM)

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This rank structure for the Re-imagined Series is derived from the Original Series ranks as mentioned in Ronald D. Moore's blog.

Contents 1 Rank equivalences 1.1 Note 2 Insignia 3 Additional Images 4 Official Statements 5 See Also 6 External Links 7 References

Rank equivalences

These ranks have been speculatively expanded in order to provide a rough rank equivalence with the United States Navy. Many aspects of the following table are speculative.

The following table exists mainly to improve understanding of Colonial ranks for those familiar with the US military and similarly structured organizations. However, while the Colonial Fleet has many parallels with modern armed forces, it also diverges from them in certain places, for example in the duties of commanders and admirals, or the place of the CAG within the ship's hierarchy. Therefore, the emphasis is on placing the ranks in their most appropriate place within the Battlestar Galactica universe, which is why they don't necessarily match perfectly with modern ranks.

The officer ranks of the Colonial Marine Corps have yet to be established on screen or by official sources and thus are not listed here (see Official Statements). The Marine Corps's enlisted ranks seen so far mirror real world ranks.

COLONIAL FLEET RANK	COLONIAL MARINE RANK	APPROXIMATE US NAVAL RANK	EXAMPLE
FLAG OFFICER
Admiral		Admiral	Nagala, Corman [1]
Vice Admiral		Vice Admiral
Rear Admiral [2]		Rear Admiral (upper, lower half)	Helena Cain, William Adama (Season 2.5+)
COMMISSIONED OFFICER
Commander [3]		Captain	William Adama (Miniseries-Season 2.5)
Colonel		Commander	Saul Tigh, Jack Fisk, Jurgen Belzen
Major		Lieutenant Commander	Jackson Spencer, Doctor Cottle, Kendra Shaw, Lee Adama (Season 3+)
Captain		N/A	Lee Adama (Miniseries-Season 2.5), Kara Thrace (Season 2.5+), Aaron Kelly, Karl Agathon (Season 3+)
Lieutenant		Lieutenant	Kara Thrace (Miniseries-Season 2.5), Karl Agathon (Season 1-2)[4], Terry Burrell[5] (CMC)
Lieutenant Junior Grade [6]		Lieutenant Junior Grade	Sharon Valerii, Felix Gaeta, Louanne Katraine (Season 1-2)
Ensign		Ensign	Davis, Diana Seelix (Season 3+)
SENIOR ENLISTED (NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICER)
Master Chief Petty Officer	Sergeant Major	Master Chief Petty Officer	Socrata Thrace (CMC, retired)
Chief Petty Officer	Gunnery Sergeant	Chief Petty Officer	Galen Tyrol (Miniseries-Season 4), Erin Mathias (CMC)
Petty Officer 1st Class	Staff Sergeant	Petty Officer 1st Class	Hadrian (CMC) [7]
Petty Officer 2nd Class	Sergeant	Petty Officer 2nd Class	Anastasia Dualla (Miniseries-Season 2), Cally Henderson (Season 3+)
Petty Officer 3rd Class [8]	Corporal	Petty Officer 3rd Class	Venner (CMC)
JUNIOR ENLISTED
Crewman Specialist[9]	Lance Corporal	Seaman	Cally Henderson (Miniseries-Season 3), Socinus, Prosna
Deckhand	Private First Class	Seaman Apprentice	Scott Kelso (CMC)
Recruit	Private	Seaman Recruit	Sykes, Stewart Jaffee (both CMC)

Note

The main premise behind this table is that there is enough circumstantial evidence to equate the rank of commander with captain, and leave rear admiral as such (see footnotes), albeit combining the American split in lower and upper halves. Additionally, the Battlestar Galactica ranks should be equated with ranks that come close to their role in the series. It is also desirable to oppose the ranks of ensign to lieutenant one to one. This leaves the Battlestar Galactica structure with one rank more than the real world US Navy, which makes it necessary to leave one rank as "not available" (N/A). Whether this is major or captain is random. While one could devise a structure that provides a direct equivalence of each rank with a real world counterpart, it should be kept in mind that the Colonial Fleet is a fictional organization and works similar to but not identical to real world navies. The above table was felt to be a reasonable compromise between documenting the Battlestar Galactica universe by itself and analyzing its rank structure in a real world context.

Insignia

Senior Officers
Admiral [1]	Rear Admiral [2]	Commander	Colonel
Junior Officers
Major	Captain	Lieutenant	Lieutenant, j.g./Ensign[10]
Non-Commissioned Officers
Chief Petty Officer	Petty Officer, 1st Class [7]	Petty Officer, 2nd Class
Enlisted Personnel
Crewman Specialist

These pictures were created by Jim Stevenson a.k.a. "137th Gebirg". Insignia for the other ranks have yet to be shown on screen and thus aren't listed here.

Senior Officers' ranks can also be identified by the color of the piping on their uniforms.

Additional Images

Commander rank pin in detail

Chief Petty Officer pin in detail

Official Statements

• In a blog entry on February 19, 2005 Ronald Moore gave a little insight into the rank structure of Battlestar Galactica:

"What is the rank structure? It doesn't seem consistant with the Navy."
The rank structure is derived from the original series. I didn't want to change Commander Adama to Captain Adama or Colonel Tigh to Commander Tigh, so I elected to simply embrace the co-mingled nature of the original rank structure. For our internal purposes, we've decided that the ranks are indeed a mixture of naval and army nomenclature and are basically as follows:
Officers:

• Admiral
• Commander
• Colonel
• Major
• Captain
• Lieutenant
• Lieutenant (junior grade)
• Ensign

Enlisted:

• Master Chief Petty Officer
• Chief Petty Officer
• Petty Officer (1st, 2nd Class)
• Specialist
• Deck Hand
• Recruit

Just to complicate matters further, there are also Marines aboard Galactica which conform more closely to the traditional enlisted Marine ranks, with Sergeants, Sergeant-Majors (sic), etc. Unresolved is the question of whether the Marine officers would also adhere to the mixed rank structure (which sounds odd) or if they are strictly army equivalents (which makes no sense given that the "Navy" ranks seem oblivious to there being any such distinction). Aren't you glad you asked?

See Also

• Uniforms (RDM) - Uniforms of the Re-imagined Series.
• Insignia (RDM) - Additional insignia and patches for uniforms in the Re-Imagined Series.
• Military Ranks (TOS) - Ranks of the Original Series.

External Links

A detailed analysis of Battlestar Galactica's uniform devices by Jim Stevenson. Also the source for this article's images.

References