A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark where the officer exercises command. The term usually, but not exclusively, refers to the senior officers in an English-speaking nation's navy, specifically those who hold any of the admiral ranks; in some cases it applies also to those holding the rank of commodore. In U.S. usage it is additionally applied to Coast Guard officers and general officers in the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps entitled to fly their own flags.
Read more about Flag Officer: General Usage, Canada, United Kingdom, United States
Famous quotes containing the words flag and/or officer:
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is now time to stop and to ask ourselves the question which my last commanding officer, Admiral Hyman Rickover, asked me and every other young naval officer who serves or has served in an atomic submarine. For our Nation M for all of us M that question is, “Why not the best?””
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)