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.
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.
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 | ||||
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| Admiral [1] | Rear Admiral [2] | Commander | Colonel | |
| Junior Officers | ||||
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| Major | Captain | Lieutenant | Lieutenant, j.g./Ensign[10] | |
| Non-Commissioned Officers | ||||
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| Chief Petty Officer | Petty Officer, 1st Class [7] | Petty Officer, 2nd Class | ||
| Enlisted Personnel | ||||
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| 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
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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
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Admiral: Corman wears the same admiral insignia as Adama and Cain, but has thick gold piping on his uniform.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Rear Admiral:
- In the Extended Version of the episode "Pegasus", Adama states "Fleet promoted her to rear admiral over half of the commanders on the list." This could also indicate that commander is not a flag rank in the BSG universe.
- A screen capture of Galactica's Dradis shows two stars next to Pegasus. It is speculated that this denotes Cain as a two-star admiral.
- When Adama is promoted to admiral in "Resurrection Ship, Part II" his new rank insignia are identical to Cain's. They also have two gold bars on the sides, which could be similar to today's two stars of a rear admiral, upper half.
- Cain seems to command both her battlestar and its Battlestar Group. In modern practice, a captain commands only the ship, while a rear admiral is in charge of the Carrier Strike Group.
- ↑ Commander:
- The rank of commander is somewhat unclear and also encompasses duties of both modern admirals and captains. While there are some arguments to be made to equate it with rear admiral, lower half, Battlestar Wiki chooses to equate it with captain, because this comes closest to describing the command structure on Galactica with Adama as CO and Tigh as XO.
- In "Resurrection Ship, Part II", Roslin states "that someone who commands more than one ship is called an admiral". While she is simplifying matters, this also points to where the Colonials draw the distinction between a commander and an admiral.
- ↑ Helo states his rank as "lieutenant, junior grade" in "33", but he consistently wears the rank insignia of a lieutenant.
- ↑ Burrell is a marine lieutenant, but where that aligns with fleet rank is indeterminate (see Official Statements)
- ↑ The rank of lieutenant, junior grade is sometimes written as "junior lieutenant" (or JRLT in short). For example on Boomer's Raptor nameplate in the Miniseries, and Kara Thrace's disciplinary records in "The Son Also Rises".
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 In "Litmus" Sergeant Hadrian wears insignia listed here as 'petty officer, 1st class'. While she is a Marine, it is possible that some rank insignia are used in both services.
Her rank is assumed to be 'staff sergeant' which equates to 'petty officer, 1st class'. Placing her one rank lower or higher would create a conflict with the established insignia of 'petty officer, 2nd class' and 'chief petty officer' respectively. - ↑ The ranks of senior chief petty officer and petty officer, 3rd class are not included in Ron Moore's official statement on Colonial military ranks, but are included here to harmonize fleet and marine ranks.
- ↑ The end credits for "Flight of the Phoenix" and "Revelations" list Anthony Figurski as "specialist, 3rd class". This indicates that there are three subdivisions for this rank. However, the exact rank of other specialists is unclear. Furthermore, only a single rank insignia for specialist has been established so far.
- ↑ The use of the lieutenant.j.g insignia for the rank of ensign in episodes like "Scar" and "Dirty Hands" is likely just a costuming necessity. While the costuming department doesn't appear to have produced ensign insignia yet, the Colonial Military would probably use different ones to distinguish the ranks.
