Flag Officer

From Freepedia

Flag Officer is both a historic naval rank and a modern day navy title.

Originally the word denotes a naval officer of a high rank (often reserved for royalty and high nobility) entitling him to fly a personal flag, especially on his flag ship.

The generic title of "Flag Officer" is used in several 21st century navies to denote those who hold the rank of Rear Admiral (or its equivalent) and above, also called flag ranks. This corresponds to the generic term General Officer, shortened to General in spoken language, used by land (and often other, e.g. air) forces to describe all grades of Generals -or above, as (Field) Marshal-; even though various armies allow them flags too, the term flag officer is only commonly used for naval officers.

• A flag officer generally has an officer, called Flag adjutant, attached to him as a personal Adjutant (not unlike an aide de camp) regardless of any staff under his command.

• In the 19th century, Flag Officer was also an actual rank of the United States Navy and, during the American Civil War, also the Confederate Navy. The rank of Flag Officer was bestowed on senior Navy Captains who were assigned to lead a squadron of vessels in addition to command of their own ship. The 19th century rank of Flag Officer was considered strictly temporary and became obsolete upon the creation and wide spread usage of the equivalent naval rank of Commodore.