Commodore (United States)

Commodore (United States)

Commodore was an early title and later a rank in the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard and a current honorary title in the U.S. Navy with an intricate history. Because the U.S. Congress was originally unwilling to authorize more than four ranks (captain, master commandant, lieutenant, and midshipman) until 1862, considerable importance was attached to the title of commodore. Like its Royal Navy counterpart at the time, the U.S. Navy commodore was not a higher rank, but a temporary assignment for Navy officers, as Herman Melville wrote in his 1850 novel, White-Jacket.

An American commodore in the early period, like an English commodore or a French chef d'escadre, was an officer (generally but not exclusively a captain) assigned temporary command of more than one ship. He continued his permanent or regular rank during the assignment. Once employed as a commodore, however, many jealously held onto the impressive title after their qualifying assignment ended. The Navy Department tried to discourage such continuing usage because it led to confusion and unnecessary rivalries.

Commodore was established as a temporary rank in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was discontinued in 1947, its previous incumbents having all been advanced to Rear Admiral or retired. Nearly forty years later, it was reinstated as an official rank with a pay grade of O-7, replacing the previously titled Rear Admiral (lower half), which were U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard flag officers paid at the one-star rank of an O-7, but who wore the two-star rank insignia of an O-8. In 1982, following years of objections and complaints by the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps, the rank of Commodore was again reintroduced in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard as an O-7 rank. Confusion soon followed in the Navy and Coast Guard between the O-7 flag officers with the rank of Commodore and the multiple O-6 Captains concurrently in command of functional air wings, destroyer squadrons, submarine squadrons, etc., holding the honorary title of Commodore. In 1983, after a very brief redesignation of Commodore Admiral, the O-7 paygrade in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard was again redesignated as Rear Admiral (lower half), but with the single star for collar insignia and applicable shoulder insignia (i.e., flight suits, jackets, etc.), single silver star on top of solid gold background shoulder board insignia, and a single broad gold sleeve stripe insignia for dress blue uniforms.