Commander is a
military
rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending
on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is
also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the
military, particularly in police and law enforcement.
Commander as a military rank
Commander is a
military rank used in
many
navies and some
air
forces but is very rarely used as a rank in
armies. The title (originally "Master and Commander")
originated in the 18th century to describe naval
Lieutenants who commanded smaller (unrated) ships
such as ship-sloops or brig-sloops. Officers who held command
retained this title only during their period in command of that
particular vessel; when they left that vessel, they reverted to
their
substantive rank of Lieutenant. The Royal
Navy shortened "Master and Commander" to just "Commander" in 1794,
when it became a formal (permanent) rank; however, the term "Master
and Commander" remained (unofficially) in common parlance for
several years. A corresponding rank in some navies is
Frigate Captain. In the 20th and 21st
centuries, the rank as been assigned the
NATO rank code of
OF-4.
Royal Navy

Insignia of a Royal Navy
Commander
A commander in the
Royal Navy is above
the rank of
lieutenant-commander, below the rank of
captain, and is equivalent in rank
to a
lieutenant colonel in the
army. A commander may command a
frigate,
destroyer,
submarine, aviation squadron or shore
installation, or may serve on a staff.
Royal Australian Navy
A Commander in the
Royal
Australian Navy (RAN) is identical in description to a
Commander in the British
Royal Navy. RAN
Chaplains who are Division 1, 2 and 3 (of 5 divisions) have the
equivalent rank standing of Commanders. This means that to Officers
and NCOs below the rank of Commander, Major or Squadron Leader, the
Chaplain is a Commander. To those Officers ranked higher than
Commander, the Chaplain is subordinate. Although this equivlancy
exists, RAN Chaplains who are Division 1, 2 and 3 do not actually
wear the rank of Commander, and they hold no command
privilege.
Royal Air Force
Since the British
Royal Air Force's
middle-ranking officers' designations are modelled after the
Royal Navy's, the term
wing commander is used as a rank and
is equivalent to a lieutenant colonel in the army or commander in
the navy. The rank is above
Squadron
Leader and below
Group
Captain.
In the now defunct
Royal Naval
Air Service, which amalgamated with the
Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air
Force in 1918, pilots held appointments as well as their normal
Royal Navy ranks, and wore insignia appropriate to the appointment
instead of the rank. Flight commander wore a star above a
lieutenant's two rank stripes, squadron commander wore two stars
above two rank stripes (less than eight years' seniority) or
two-and-a-half rank stripes (over eight years seniority), and wing
commander wore three rank stripes. The rank stripes had the usual
Royal Navy curl, and were surmounted by an eagle.
Canadian Navy
United States
Commander as a military title
British Army
In the
British Army, the term
"commander" is officially applied to the
non-commissioned officer in charge
of a
section (section
commander), vehicle (vehicle commander) or gun (gun commander), to
the
subaltern or
captain commanding a
platoon (platoon commander), or to the
brigadier commanding a
brigade (brigade commander). Other officers
commanding units are usually referred to as the
Officer Commanding (OC),
Commanding Officer (CO),
General Officer Commanding (GOC),
or
General Officer
Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-C), depending on rank and position,
although the term "commander" may be applied to them
informally.
New Zealand Army
The usage is similar to the
United
States Army, with the term "commander" usually applying to very
senior officers only, typically at Divisional level (Major
General).
Spanish Armed Forces and Guardia Civil
In the
Spanish Army, the
Spanish Air Force and the
Marine Infantry, the term commander is
the literal translation of "comandante", the Spanish equivalent of
a Commonwealth
Major. The
Guardia Civil shares the Army ranks, and the
officer commanding a house-garrison (usually a NCO or a lieutenant,
depending on the size) is addressed as the "Comandante de Puesto"
(Post Commander).
United States Army
In the
United States Army, the
term "commander" is officially applied to the
commanding officer of army units; hence,
there are
company commanders,
battalion commanders,
brigade commanders, and so forth. At the
highest levels of
U.S. military
command structure, "commander" also refers to what used to be
called
commander-in-chief, or
CINC, until
October 24,
2002, although the term CINC is still used in casual
speech.
United States Air Force
In the
Air Force, the term
"commander" (abbreviated "CC" in office symbols, i.e. "OG/CC" for
"Operations Group Commander") is officially applied to the
commanding officer of an Air Force unit; hence, there are flight
commanders, squadron commanders, group commanders, wing commanders,
and so forth. In rank, a
flight commander is typically a
Lieutanant or
Captain, a
squadron
commander is typically a
Major or
Lieutenant Colonel, a
group commander is typically a
Colonel, and a
wing commander is typically a senior
Colonel or a
Brigadier
General.
An "Aircraft Commander" is also designated for all flights of
United States Air Force Aircraft. This individual must be a pilot
and an officer that has graduated from an formal aircraft commander
course and is designated on flight orders by the unit commander for
that particular flight. This individual is in command of all
military personnel on the aircraft regardless of rank (even
individuals that out-rank the aircraft commander).
Commander as a non-military rank or title
NASA rank
In NASA spacecraft missions since the beginning of Project Gemini,
one crew member on each spacecraft is designated as Mission
Commander. The Commander is the captain of the ship, and makes all
real-time critical decisions on behalf of the crew and in
coordination with the Mission Control Center (MCC).
Aviation rank
In aviation the Flight Captain is also known as the
Commander.
British police rank
Within the
British
Police, Commander is a chief
officer rank in the two police forces responsible for law
enforcement within London
, the
Metropolitan Police and
City of London Police.
In both forces, the rank is senior to
Chief Superintendent, in
the Metropolitan Police it is junior to
Deputy Assistant Commissioner
and in the City of London Police it is junior to
Assistant
Commissioner. In forces outside of London, the rank equates to
Assistant Chief
Constable.
The Metropolitan Police introduced the rank in 1946, after they
split the rank of Deputy Assistant Commissioner with senior DACs
keeping the rank and title with junior ones being regraded as
Commanders. The Metropolitan Police also had the rank of
Deputy Commander, ranking just below that
of Commander, between 1946 and 1968. In addition, officers in
charge of policing each of the
London's
boroughs are given the title "Borough Commander". However, such
officers do not hold the actual rank of Commander but instead hold
the rank of
Chief
Superintendent. An exception to this is the Borough Commander
of Westminster, who is actually a Commander and not a Chief
Superintendent due to the size, complexity and high-profile nature
of the borough.
Australian police rank
In Australia, Commander is a rank used by the Victorian, Tasmanian,
Western Australian, and South Australian police forces. The
insignia consists of a crown over three Bath Stars in a triangular
formation, equivalent to a
Brigadier in
the army. In all four forces, it is junior to the rank of
Assistant Commissioner, and senior to
the rank of
Chief
Superintendent, with the exception of Western Australia where
it is senior to the rank of
Superintendent.
United States police rank
The
Los Angeles Police
Department and the
San Francisco Police
Department are two of the few American police departments which
use this rank. A Commander in the LAPD is equivalent to an
Inspector in other US departments (such as the
NYPD); the LAPD rank was originally called
Inspector as well, but was changed in 1974 to Commander after
senior officers voiced a preference for the more
military-sounding rank.
Commander is also utilized by larger
Sheriff's Departments in the United States. The rank
usually falls between Chief Deputy and Captain, which is three
positions removed from the sheriff. The Clark County Sheriff's
Office in southwest Washington state uses the rank of Commander. It
falls between the rank of Sergeant and the rank of Branch Chief.
The insignia worn by a Clark County Sheriff's Office Commander is a
gold oak leaf, the same insignia worn by a
Major in the Army, or the Air Force, or the Marine
Corps.
The
Washington,
DC
Metropolitan Police Department (MPDC) also uses the rank of Commander. The rank
falls between those of Inspector and Assistant Chief.
The Rochester, NY Police Department (RPD) uses the rank of
Commander. Higher than Captain and below Deputy Chief, the rank is
achieved by appointment. Commander is the rank held by the two
patrol division heads and other Commanders fill various
administrative roles. The St. Paul Police Department (MN) is
another police force that uses the rank of commander. In the St.
Paul Police department, Commanders serve as the chief of the
district/unit that they oversee.
Many police departments in the midwest (including the
Chicago Police Department) use the
rank of commander. It is equivalent to a lieutenant in most other
departments, being above a sergeant and below a deputy chief or
captain.
Commander is also used as a title in certain circumstances, such as
the Commander of a squad of Detectives, who would usually be of the
rank of Lieutenant.
Incident Command System
In the
Incident Command
System the Incident Commander is in charge of the response to
an emergency. The title may pass from person to person as the
incident develops.
Military and chivalric orders
The title of Commander is used in the Military Orders, such as the
Sovereign Military Order of
Malta, for a member senior to a
Knight.
The title of Knight Commander is often used to denote an even
higher rank. These conventions are also used by most of the
continental orders of chivalry. The United Kingdom uses different
classifications.
In most of the British Orders of Knighthood, the grade of Knight
(or Dame) Commander is the lowest grade of knighthood, but is above
the grade of Companion (which does not carry a knighthood). In the
Royal Victorian Order and the
Order of the British
Empire, the grade of Commander is senior to the grade of
Lieutenant or Officer respectively, but junior to that of Knight or
Dame Commander. In the British
Order of St. John, a Commander
ranks below a Knight. (However, Knights of the Order of St. John
are not called "Sir.")
In common usage
"Commander" may sometimes be used by laymen, usually applied to the
person who is accountable for and holds authority over a group or
the attempts of a group to achieve a common goal.
In fiction
- In the film Forbidden
Planet, Commander John J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) is the Commanding Officer of United Planets
Cruiser C-57D.
- Keith Murphey & Robert King’s fictional character Andreamos
is referred to as “CAG, The Commander” a former commander of Alpha
Battalion C of the planet Arkayus in the comic book story by the
Comicbook Artists Guild.
- In V for Vendetta, the
Voice of London, Lewis Prothero is Commander Prothero.
- In the computer game World of
Warcraft, Commander is a retired military rank of the
Alliance. Few players still have the rank of Commander.
- In the computer game X-Com:
Ufo Defense, Commander is the highest rank achievable by
X-Com soldiers, and only one soldier may hold the rank of Commander
at any one time.
- The fictional James Bond
holds the rank of Commander in the Royal
Navy.
- The fictional Horatio
Hornblower holds the rank of Commander in Hornblower and the
Hotspur.
- In seaQuest DSV Jonathan Ford holds the rank of
Commander.
- In Star Trek, Spock, William T.
Riker, Deanna Troi, Beverly
Crusher, Chakotay, and Benjamin Sisko (at the start of the
DS9 series) all hold
the rank of Commander.
- In Babylon 5, Jeffrey Sinclair in season 1 and Susan Ivanova starting from season 2 hold the
rank of Commander.
- The titles of book Master and Commander and
subsequent Hollywood film Master and
Commander: The Far Side of the World refer to the original
name for the rank, although Jack Aubrey is actually a Captain in
the film, which is based on a later book in the series.
- In the Star Wars films, the
rank of Commander is commonly used among the Imperial Navy and the Rebel Alliance. Luke Skywalker is promoted to Commander after
destroying the Death Star.
- In Space: 1999, John Koenig was Commander of Moonbase Alpha.
- In the strategy game series Command & Conquer, the
player is always referred to as Commander by most characters in the
series. Similarly, the player's avatar (and leader of their
respective armies) in Total
Annihilation is a unique unit known only as the Arm/Core
Commander.
- In Terry Pratchett's
Discworld novels, Sir Samuel Vimes has the rank of Commander of the
Ankh-Morpork City
Watch.
- In the detective novels by P.
D. James,
Adam Dalgliesh holds the Metropolitan
Police rank of Commander.
- In David Weber's novel On Basilisk Station, the main
character, Honor Harrington, holds
the rank of Commander in the Royal Manticoran Navy.
- In the Battlestar
Galactica miniseries (2003) and
television
series (2004-2009), Commander William
Adama (played by Edward James
Olmos) is the Commanding
Officer of Galactica. President
Laura Roslyn (Mary McDonnell) promotes him to Admiral after
Rear Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes) is killed by the Cylon Gina
Inviere (Tricia Helfer).
- In Soul Calibur III's
mini-game, Chronicles of the Sword, the young cadet is
promoted to the rank of commander after he/she defeats the General
in a final test at the Academy.
- In Pokémon
Diamond and Pearl, three members of Team Galactic are commanders and are the
leaders right under the boss.
- In Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons
series, the father of the Swallows is Commander Ted Walker of
the British Royal Navy.
- In season 5 of TV show JAG, Harmon
Rabb is promoted to Commander.
- Tom Clancy's fictional character
Jack Ryan, formerly a
Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, is
referred to as "commander" when in naval uniform in the film and
book The Hunt for Red
October, though he is actually a CIA
liaison. He is called "commander" since he wears the uniform of a
US Navy Commander.
- In the Infinity Wards multi platform game Call of Duty 4, Commander is the highest
rank to achieve in Online Mode.
- In the game Mass Effect,
the main protagonist, John Shepard, is ranked as Commander.
- In the Wheel of Time
series by Robert Jordan, Mat Cauthon's past lives including his own
were always commanders of the best armies that ever existed.
- In Call Of Duty 4 online "Commander" is the last rank earned
(Lv.55)
- In the televisoin series Voyage to the
Bottom of the Sea, Commander Lee Crane (David Hedison) was the commanding officer of the submarine
Seaview.
See also
References
- Victoria Police Website
- Western Australia Police Website