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Commodore admiral (COMO) was a short-lived
military rank Military ranks is a system of hierarchy, hierarchical relationships within armed forces, police, Intelligence agency, intelligence agencies, paramilitary groups, and other institutions organized along military organisation , military lines, such ...
of the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
and
United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...
that existed for less than 11 months during the year 1982.


History

The rank of commodore admiral was established as the Navy's one-star admiral rank after over forty years during which all promoted Navy and Coast Guard captains were advanced directly to the two-star position of
rear admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
, but were still paid as one-star officers in the pay grade of O-7 while in a "rear admiral, lower half" category. This was a result of the Navy Personnel Act of 3 March 1899 that eliminated the "rank" of commodore in the US Navy. The same protocol was adopted by the US Coast Guard when it was established as a military service in its current form and title in the early 1900s. In the early 1940s, commodore was briefly reconstituted as a one-star wartime rank in the US Navy and US Coast Guard, but most promoted captains were still advanced to the two-star insignia rank of rear admiral, lower half. With nearly all of the one-star commodore incumbents promoted to rear admiral by the end of World War II, the rank of commodore was again suspended. The new rank of commodore admiral was created both as a means to appease the other three branches of the U.S. military, who felt that promoting USN and USCG O-6s to O-7, yet entitling them to wear the insignia of an O-8, was unfair, and also as a means of distinguishing that Navy and Coast Guard one-star admirals were in fact
flag officer A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the position from which that officer exercises command. Different countries use the term "flag officer" in different ways: * ...
s. This had been a major problem in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, when cultural mistakes had led to several US Navy commodores being regarded as senior captains by members of foreign militaries and in turn denied honors due to a U.S.
flag officer A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the position from which that officer exercises command. Different countries use the term "flag officer" in different ways: * ...
. Upon its establishment, many in the leadership of the US Navy and US Coast Guard felt that the rank of Commodore Admiral violated over a century of tradition and there were numerous petitions to the
Chief of Naval Operations The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the highest-ranking officer of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an Admiral (United States), admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the United States Secretary ...
to eliminate the rank. As a compromise, the rank of commodore admiral was changed simply to "commodore" at the start of 1983. However, this change caused even further problems internal to the Navy because senior captains commanding multiple units, e.g., those in charge of air wings and air groups, destroyer squadrons, submarine squadrons, etc., had held the honorary title of "commodore" for decades. Also, many commodore admirals found that their mail was being redirected to the base officer's club, also known as the Commissioned Officer's Mess, Open (aka COMO). As a result, the "rank" of commodore in the USN and USCG was itself abolished as a rank in 1985. It was replaced by the new rank of rear admiral (lower half), essentially the same title as before dating back to before World War II. However, this time, officers promoted to O-7 wore one-star insignia. The rank of commodore admiral is one of the rarest ranks in the history of United States Navy and United States Coast Guard. Only a handful of officers, mainly those captains promoted to O-7 during the year 1982, have ever held the position, such as Admiral Leon A. Edney, who promoted while serving as the commandant of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. Another famous example was that of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper.


See also

*
Commodore (United States) Commodore was an early title and later a rank in the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard and the Confederate States Navy, and also has been a rank in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the National Ocean ...


References


Bibliography

*Office of the Law Revision Counsel, United States. Congress. House. ''United States Code'', Washington: The Office, 2001. {{US officer ranks Military ranks of the United States Navy One-star officers it:Commodore admiral