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Formalized Ranks

The "warrant" portion of the Warrant Officer’s title comes from the old French word warrant that meant variously a protector, a defense and an authorization. It is also the source of our modern word "warranty". In 1040 when five English ports began furnishing warships to King Edward the Confessor in exchange for certain privileges, they also furnished crews whose officers were the Master, Boatswain, Carpenter and Cook. Later these officers were "warranted" by the British Admiralty. They maintained and sailed the ships and were the standing officers of the navy. Soldiers commanded by Captains would be on board the ships to do the fighting, but they had nothing to do with running the ships. the word "soldiering" came about as a seaman’s term of contempt for the soldiers and anyone else who avoided shipboard duties.

The warranted officers were often the permanent members of the ships’ companies. They stayed with the ships in port between voyages s caretakers, supervising repairs and refitting. Other crewmen and soldiers might change with each voyage. Early in the Fourteenth Century the Purser joined the warrant officers. He was originally "the clerk of burser". During the following centuries the Gunner, surgeon, chaplain, Master-at-arms, Schoolmaster and others signed on.

Warrant Officers were members of our Navy right from its beginning. There were Warrant Officers on the ships of the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War. When Congress created our Navy in 1794 it listed the Warrant Officers as the Sailing Master, Purser, Boatswain, Gunner, Carpenter, Sailmaker and Midshipman.

Navy Warrant Officers began wearing blue and gold stipes in 1853--on their caps. They had stripes of half-inch wide gold lace separated by a quarter-inch wide stripe of blue cloth. In 1899 Chief Warrant Officers started wearing the sleeve stripe of a single strip of half-inch wide gold lace broken at intervals by sections of blue thread half an inch wide. In 1919 the other Navy Warrant Officers began wearing sleeve stripes of gold lace broken by sections of blue.

Our Revolutionary army had Warrant Officers, but otherwise the Army and Marines did not have them until the Twentieth Century. In 1916 the Marines made some of their Gunners and Quartermaster Clerks Warrant Officers. In 1918 Pay Clerks could also become Warrants. Also in 1918, the Army created Warrant Officers in its Mine Planter Service to serve as Masters, Mates and Engineers of its seagoing vessels. Congress authorized more Army Warrant Officers in 1920 in clerical, administrative and band leading activities, but the intent seems to have been to reward enlisted men for long service or provide positions for World War I officers who could not hold their commissions after the war. Between 1922 and 1936 the Army promoted only a few band leaders and Mine planter Service members to warrant status. In 1936 the Army held competitive examinations to replenish its Warrant Officer eligibility lists and once again began making appointments.

For rank insignia, Marine Warrant Officers wore the insignias of their respective departments until 1944 when they began wearing gold or silver bars broken by stripes of scarlet enamel. Army Warrant Officers got oval bars of gold and brown in 1942. Warrant Officers in the Army Air Forces wore oval bars of gold and light blue. In 1956 both changed to square-cornered gold or silver bars with blue enamel stripes for the Air Force and brown for the Army. There were four grades of Warrant Officers. The Warrant Officer (W-1) wore a gold bar with two enamel stripes, the Chief Warrant Officer (W-2) a gold bar with three stripes, the Chief Warrant Officer (W-3) a silver bar with two stripes and the chief Warrant Officer (W-4) a silver bar with three stripes. The Army found this system confusing so in 1969 asked its Institute of Heraldry to design another device. That was the silver bar with black enamel squares introduced in 1972 and still worn by Army Warrant Officers. Now the Warrant Officer (W-1) has one square and each higher grade gets another square up to Chief Warrant Officer (W-4) with four.

Ensign comes from the Latin word insignia that meant and still means emblem or banner. A warrior who carried his lord’s banner or ensign became known as an ensign bearer and then just an Ensign. Later, the Ensign. Later, the Ensign, still bearing his banner, led a military unit of about 500 foot soldiers called an "ensigne". As a military rank, Ensign started in the French army as a junior officer and soon entered the French navy whose lowest commissioned rank is still Ensign. Ensigns served in our revolutionary War in infantry regiments where they were the lowest ranking commissioned officers. After the war they also served in Regular Army infantry regiments from 1796 to 1814.

Ensigns joined our Navy in 1862 to fill the need for a rank for graduates of the Naval Academy who had been called Passed Midshipmen, and to have an equivilent rank to the Army Second Lieutenant. Also in 1862, Ensigns wore a sleeve stripe of one one-quarter-inch wide gold lace, which increased to the present one-half-inch wide lace in 1881. The Ensign got his single gold bar rank insignia in 1922.

A Lieutenant often takes the place of a superior officer when that officer is absent. The word comes from the French lieu (place) and tenant (holder). The Lieutenant then is one who holds the place of another. Since he took the place of a senior officer the Lieutenant ranked next to that person and was his deputy. Such was the case for Lieutenant General and Lieutenant Colonel, which I will discuss later. The Navy Lieutenant Commander came about in a different way, which I will also discuss later. Those who served with Captains might have been called Lieutenant Captains but that title did not survive as a rank.

There may have been Lieutenants aboard British warships as early as the Twelfth Century when the ships carried groups of soldiers to do whatever fighting was necessary. A Captain commanded the soldiers and he might have had a Lieutenant. The rank appeared officially in the British navy about 1580, but soon disappeared. It became a designated rank in 1650 as the rank given to noblemen in training to become Captains. At that time there were no other ranks below Captain, so there could be three grades of Lieutenants on a ship—first, second and third. The Lieutenant has been a part of our Navy since its beginning in 1775. In 1862 the Lieutenant’s rank insignia was two gold bars. These became silver in 1877. In 1874 Lieutenants began wearing the sleeve stripes of two one-half-inch wide stripes of gold lace.

The rank below Lieutenant in the early days of our Navy was Sailing Master, later Master, a Warrant Officer. After 1855 graduates of the Naval Academy filled those positions. Their complete title was "Master in line for Promotion" to distinguish them from the Warrant Masters who would not be promoted. In 1883 the rank became Lieutenant, Junior Grade. In 1862 the Masters wore a gold bar for rank insignia, which became a silver bar in 1877. In 1881 they started wearing their current sleeve stripes of one one-half-inch and one one-quarter-inch wide stripes of gold lace.

On land, there had been Lieutenants in the British and other armies for several centuries so it was logical to have the rank on duty in 1775 with our Army. About 1832 First Lieutenants, except those in the Infantry, began wearing a bar—a gold one—on their shoulder straps as rank insignia. The bar had to be the same color as the borders of their shoulder straps, which were gold. Infantry First Lieutenants, however, wore shoulder straps with silver borders so their bars were of silver. After 1851 all Army officers wore shoulder straps with gold borders so the Infantry First Lieutenants then wore gold bars. The situation was just the opposite when First Lieutenants wore their dress uniforms, which had gold epaulettes. Their rank insignia had to contrast with the gold so they wore silver bars. In 1872 the Army cleared up the confusion and made the bars on shoulder straps silver as well. Second Lieutenants did not have rank insignia but wore epaulettes or shoulder straps so their uniforms identified them as officers. When officers and enlisted men both started wearing khaki uniforms with plain shoulder straps during the Spanish-American War it became more difficult to recognize the Second Lieutenant. Other officers wore metal rank insignia on their shoulder straps or collars. In 1917 the Army settled that problem by making the gold bar the Second Lieutenant’s badge of rank.

A Captain is a chieftain or head of a unit. The title comes from the Latin word capitaneus that meant chieftain, which in turn came from an older Latin word caput that meant head. It would seem that a Captain could head a unit of any size, but as armies evolved his post came to be at the head of a company, which by the Sixteenth Century was usually 100 to 200 men. That seemed to be the number one man could manage in battle. There appear to have been Captains leading Italian soldiers in the Tenth Century. In the Eleventh or Twelfth Century, British warships carried groups of soldiers commanded by Captains to do the fighting. The Navy’s rank of Captain came from that practice, which I will describe later in the section on the navy Captain.

Captains were company commanders in the British, French and other armies for centuries. They carried on that job in our Army and Marine Corps from 1775 to the present. In the Air Force, some Captains command some squadrons, which are about the equivalent of companies. Army Captains got their rank insignia of two bars in about 1832, at the same time the First Lieutenants got one bar. The bars were gold except for the Infantry officers who wore silver bars until 1851. The two bars originated a few years earlier, when Captains and Lieutenants both wore plain epaulettes whose differences were mostly in the size of the fringes. To help distinguish between the two ranks, Captains wore two strips or "holders" of gold or silver lace across the epaulette straps while Lieutenants wore one strip. In 1872 Captains changed to silver bars. These were two separate bars embroidered onto shoulder straps or epaulettes. The "railroad tracks" used by Captains today appeared when officers started using metal pin-on rank insignia on their khaki or olive drab uniforms during or shortly after the Spanish-American War.

Major is a Latin word that means "greater" as compared to minor that means "less". As a military rank it started out in the Sixteenth Century or earlier as Sergeant Major, who was the "greater" of the Sergeants. We could also think of the Sergeant Major s the "big" or "top" Sergeant, but in those days he was an officer, the second or third in command of a regiment or similar unit. The French started forming regiments in the Seventeenth Century by copying the Spanish technique of combining several companies into a column led by a Colonel. Sometimes the Captains of the companies making up the regiment would choose one of themselves as Colonel, another as Lieutenant Colonel and a third as Sergeant Major. Each would still be Captain of his own company. In practice the Colonel was often absent looking after his interests at court of playing politics for his own and his regiment’s benefit, leaving the Lieutenant Colonel as the effective commander of the regiment, aided by the Sergeant Major who was senior to the other Captains. An important part of the Sergeant Major’s job was forming the companies into a regimental unit and keeping them in proper formation in a battle or on the march. A loud, commanding voice was the key to that task and one of the major qualifications for the post. A loud voice is still needed for the job.

As the regimental system became permanent during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, the Sergeant portion of the title gave way leaving just Major as the regiment’s staff officer. Perhaps the other Captains objected to having a "big" Sergeant above them and other Sergeants below them. The title of Sergeant Major remained, but as the top Sergeant among the soldiers as he or she is today, although any good officer will admit that an effective Sergeant Major is still third in command of his regiment or other unit.

Majors in our Army started wearing oak leaves as rank insignia on their shoulder straps about 1832. Why the Army chose oak leaves remains a mystery. Navy and some Army officers had been wearing gold braid featuring oak leaves and acorns on their uniforms for several years. Generals, Admirals and some other senior officers still wear braid on their caps. One story has it that the Navy chose oak leaf braid as a tribute to the oak lumber used to build its ships. While that is a good story, it ignores the fact that some British and French officers also wore braid with oak leaves and still do today. The British might have gotten the idea from the Germans who wore oak leaves in their headgear after a battle. That practice seems to go back a long time, perhaps to pagan warriors wearing the leaves as a tribute to whatever gods they worshipped. When the Elector of Hanover became King George I of Great Britain in 1714, his German followers might have introduced the oak leaf to the British military. Another story traces the British use of oak leaves to King Charles II who escaped from his enemies in 1650 by hiding in an oak tree. Anyway, back to the Major and his oak leaves. In 1832 the color of the leaves had to be opposite the color of the shoulder strap borders so Infantry Majors wore gold leaves while other Majors wore silver. After 1851 all Majors wore gold oak leaves. They did not have oak leaves on their epaulettes because the size of the fringes on their epaulettes and other features of their uniforms identified them as Majors.

The Lieutenant Commander rank is one instance where our Navy did not adopt something from the British navy. Shortly after 1775 a senior Lieutenant who was "Captain" of a smaller, 10- to 20-gun, warship was called a Lieutenant Commanding, sometimes Lieutenant Commandant. In 1862 that rank became Lieutenant Commander. The British used the rank Senior Lieutenant until 1914 when they changed it to Lieutenant Commander. These officers in our Navy began wearing embroidered gold oak leaves on their shoulder straps in 1862 and the two and one-half stripes of gold lace on their sleeve cuffs in 1874.

A Commander is one who gives commands or has command over others. The word "command" comes from the Latin mandare that meant to give into one’s hand, that is, put somebody in charge of something so he could command it. As a rank, Commander appeared in the British navy about 1674 as "Master and Commander" to designate the officer under the Captain who was in charge of sailing a ship. He might also be second in command. The position had also been called sub-captain, under-captain, rector and master-commanding.

The Master and Commander could also command a smaller warship in which case he would be addressed as "Captain". Since every warship had a Captain, the British worked out a system of three grades of Captain depending on the size of ship commanded. The Master and Commander became the lowest of the three grades. In 1794 the British cleared up the confusion a bit by shortening the title to just Commander.

Our Navy took a different route, but reached the same point a few years later. The second of the three grades of Captain was Master Commandant, which in 1838 became Commander. The third or lowest grade of Captain was Lieutenant, Commanding, which as we have already seen became Lieutenant Commander in 1862.

In 1862 commanders began wearing embroidered silver oak leaves as rank insignia. They wore the leaves along with fouled anchors on their shoulder straps and epaulettes. In 1869 the Commander became a "three-striper" when he started wearing three one-half-inch wide stripes of gold lace on his sleeve cuffs.

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US Military Medals Book 1939-Present By Col. Frank Foster and Mr. Lonny Borts. Color pictures of all U. S. Military Decorations, Service Medals, Marksmanship Medals and Ribbons, plus commonly presented foreign medals. Complete color ribbon displays in order of precedence for Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine awards since 1939. Complete chapter on devices for awards and ribbons (cross indexed with medals). Complete section on wear and display of U.S. Military Medals for all Branches. Section on How To Claim Your Medals From the Government.

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