A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. It is also given to master chiefs in Task Force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given.
The term "general" is used in two ways: as the generic title for all grades of general officer; and as a specific rank. Since the late twentieth century, the rank of general is usually the highest active rank of a military not at war.
Read more about General Officer: All General Officer Ranks, The Specific General Rank, General Ranks By Country, Air Force and Navy Equivalents
Famous quotes containing the words general and/or officer:
“Under an able general there are no weak troops.”
—Chinese proverb.
“When Prince William [later King William IV] was at Cork in 1787, an old officer ... dined with him, and happened to say he had been forty years in the service. The Prince with a sneer asked what he had learnt in those forty years. The old gentleman justly offended, said, “Sir, I have learnt, when I am no longer fit to fight, to make as good a retreat as I can” —and walked out of the room.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)