Military Ranks (RDM)

For the rank structure of the Original Series, see Military Ranks (TOS)

Rank table

This table is largely based on an older blog entry by Ronald D. Moore, in which he replies to a question about the show's rank structure (see Official Statements below). It has been expanded a little to include ranks that have been established since (rear admiral) and once they may likely exist in addition (vice admiral, senior chief petty officer).

The ranks are a mix of naval and army/air force ranks, which is derived from the Original Series, but mirror naval practices in execution. It is possible to create a rough equivalence to real world armed forces. However, while the Colonial Fleet has many parallels with modern armed forces it is a fictional organization and diverges from reality in certain places, for example in the duties of commanders and admirals, or the place of the CAG within the ship's hierarchy.

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

COLONIAL FLEET RANK	COLONIAL MARINE RANK	EXAMPLE
FLAG OFFICER
Admiral		Nagala, Corman ^[1]
Vice Admiral
Rear Admiral ^[2]		Helena Cain, William Adama (Season 2.5+)
COMMISSIONED OFFICER
Commander		William Adama (Miniseries-Season 2.5), Jack Fisk (Season 2.5), Barry Garner (Season 2.5), Lee Adama (Season 2.5-Season 3.0)
Colonel		Saul Tigh, Jack Fisk, Jurgen Belzen
Major		Jackson Spencer, Doctor Cottle, Kendra Shaw, Lee Adama (Season 3+)
Captain		Lee Adama (Miniseries-Season 2.5), Kara Thrace (Season 2.5+), Aaron Kelly, Karl Agathon (Season 3+)
Lieutenant		Kara Thrace (Miniseries-Season 2.5), Karl Agathon (Season 1-2)^[3], Terry Burrell^[4] (CMC)
Lieutenant Junior Grade ^[5]		Sharon Valerii, Felix Gaeta, Louanne Katraine (Season 1-2)
Ensign		Davis, Diana Seelix (Season 3+)
SENIOR ENLISTED (NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICER)
Master Chief Petty Officer	Sergeant Major	Socrata Thrace (CMC, retired)
Senior Chief Petty Officer	Master Sergeant
Chief Petty Officer	Gunnery Sergeant	Galen Tyrol (Miniseries-Season 4), Erin Mathias (CMC)
Petty Officer 1st Class	Staff Sergeant	Hadrian (CMC) ^[6]
Petty Officer 2nd Class	Sergeant	Anastasia Dualla (Miniseries-Season 2), Cally Henderson (Season 3+)
JUNIOR ENLISTED
Crewman Specialist^[7]	Corporal	Cally Henderson (Miniseries-Season 3), Socinus, Prosna, Venner (CMC)
Deckhand	Private First Class	Scott Kelso (CMC)
Recruit	Private	Sykes, Stewart Jaffee (both CMC)

Insignia

Senior Officers

Admiral ^[1]	Rear Admiral ^[2]	Commander	Colonel
Junior Officers

Major	Captain	Lieutenant	Lieutenant, j.g./Ensign^[8]
Non-Commissioned Officers

Chief Petty Officer	Petty Officer, 1st Class ^[6]	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?

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 work uniform. Given that all other ranks have unique rank insignia, that all senior officer ranks have unique work uniform piping, and that there is no way to tell apart a rear admiral from a full admiral when in dress uniforms (dress uniforms have no piping) it can be speculated that, as has been the case with the ranks of ensign and lieutenant junior grade, the production crew simply decided to use the same insignia for both types of admiral. This would explain why a commander has a set of silver bars while both admiral ranks have a set of silver bars and two sets of gold bars. It is likely that different ranks of admirals would be denoted by a different amount of bars
↑ ^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.
- When Adama is promoted to admiral in "Resurrection Ship, Part II" his new rank insignia are identical to Cain's.
- 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.
- While Cain wears al duty uniform with gold piping over silver piping, Adama continues to wear his commander duty uniform with red piping over gold piping after his promotion to admiral. From a production point of view, this was most likely done so that the crew didn't have to create a new set of uniforms for the actor, but can be explained in-universe by the Fleet's lack of a proper uniform for Adama.
↑ 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".
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 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 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.

[adm-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Admiral: Corman wears the same admiral insignia as Adama and Cain, but has thick gold piping on his work uniform. Given that all other ranks have unique rank insignia, that all senior officer ranks have unique work uniform piping, and that there is no way to tell apart a rear admiral from a full admiral when in dress uniforms (dress uniforms have no piping) it can be speculated that, as has been the case with the ranks of ensign and lieutenant junior grade, the production crew simply decided to use the same insignia for both types of admiral. This would explain why a commander has a set of silver bars while both admiral ranks have a set of silver bars and two sets of gold bars. It is likely that different ranks of admirals would be denoted by a different amount of bars

[ra-2] 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.

When Adama is promoted to admiral in "Resurrection Ship, Part II" his new rank insignia are identical to Cain's.

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.

While Cain wears al duty uniform with gold piping over silver piping, Adama continues to wear his commander duty uniform with red piping over gold piping after his promotion to admiral. From a production point of view, this was most likely done so that the crew didn't have to create a new set of uniforms for the actor, but can be explained in-universe by the Fleet's lack of a proper uniform for Adama.

[3] 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.

[4] When Adama is promoted to admiral in "Resurrection Ship, Part II" his new rank insignia are identical to Cain's.

[5] 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.

[6] While Cain wears al duty uniform with gold piping over silver piping, Adama continues to wear his commander duty uniform with red piping over gold piping after his promotion to admiral. From a production point of view, this was most likely done so that the crew didn't have to create a new set of uniforms for the actor, but can be explained in-universe by the Fleet's lack of a proper uniform for Adama.

[helo-3] Helo states his rank as "lieutenant, junior grade" in "33", but he consistently wears the rank insignia of a lieutenant.

[4] Burrell is a marine lieutenant, but where that aligns with fleet rank is indeterminate (see Official Statements)

[5] 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".

[hadrian-6] 6.0 ^6.1 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.

[7] 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.

[8] 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.

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