Harriman Nelson - Military Rank

Military Rank

In the film, both of the rank markings on Nelson's uniform indicated that he was a four-star admiral: he wore four stars on the collar of his shirt and four stripes on the sleeves of his jacket (three half-inch stripes above a two-inch stripe, if they complied with U.S. Navy Uniform Regulations). In the television series, Nelson wore conflicting rank markings in most of the episodes of the first season: the stripes on the sleeves of his jacket were the same as in the film, but he wore the three stars of a Vice Admiral on his shirt collar. "The Last Battle" (season one, episode 17) was the first episode (in the order the episodes were broadcast) in which he wore four stars. He went back to three stars in the next two episodes (in the order they were broadcast), and then wore four stars for the rest of the season.