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General Officer

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A General Officer is an officer of high military rank. The term is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is just called General.

All General officer ranks

The various grades of general officer are at the top of the rank structure. The General Officer ranks came about by adding General as an adjective to existing names of ranks, although in some countries the highest general officers are titled Field Marshal or Marshal. All officers who commanded more than a single regiment (the most significant level of unit) came to be known as a "general officer".

Common systems

There are two common systems of using general ranks.

One form, used in the United Kingdom, eventually spread to the Commonwealth and the United States of America. The system is not particularly British in origin, and variations of this system were once used throughout Europe.

The other is derived from the French Revolution, where generals' ranks are named according to the unit they (theoretically) command. Old European system

Field Marshal
Colonel General
General
Lieutenant General
Major General
Brigadier (General)

This system uses five ranks. Some countries (like the United States of America) have a brigadier rank, and some countries (like Germany) had a colonel general rank, but countries usually don't have both. (i.e. Most countries exclude one of the italicised ranks.)

In some nations (particularly in the Commonwealth), the equivalent to Brigadier General is Brigadier, which is not always considered by these armies to be a general officer rank a part entiere, although it is always treated as equivalent to the rank of Brigadier General for comparative purposes.

French (Revolutionary) system

Marshal
Army General
Corps General
Divisional General
Brigade General
More information about this system can be found on the page: Général.

Other systems

Other nomenclatures for general officers include the titles and/or ranks:

The specific General rank

In the Old European system, a General, without prefix or suffix (and sometimes referred to informally as a "full general"), is usually the most senior type of general, above Lieutenant General and directly below Field Marshal. Usually it is the most senior peace-time rank, with more senior ranks (like, for example, Field Marshal) being used only in war time, or as honorary titles.

In some armies, however, the rank of Captain General, General of the Army, Army General or Colonel General occupied or occupies this position. Depending on circumstances and the army in question, these ranks may be considered to be equivalent to a full General or to a Field Marshal.

The rank of General came about as a "Captain-General", the captain of an army in general, i.e. the whole army. The rank of Captain-General began appearing around the time of the organization of professional armies in the 17th century. In most countries "Captain-General" contracted to just "General".

General ranks by country

The following articles deal with the rank of General as it is employed in the militaries of those countries.

General equivalent ranks

Other General ranks

Air Force and Navy Equivalents

Some countries (such as the United States) use the General Officer ranks for both the army and the air force. But some countries only use the General Officer ranks for the army, while in the air force they use Air Officers as the equivalent of General Officers. They use the air force rank of Air Marshal as the equivalent of the specific army rank of General. This latter group includes the British Royal Air Force and those based on it (e.g. India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Nigeria etc.).

In most navies of the world, Flag Officers are the equivalent of General Officers. And the naval rank of Admiral is equivalent to the specific army rank of General. However a noteworthy historical exception was the Cromwellian naval rank General at sea. In recent years in the American service there is a tendency to use "Flag Officer" and "Flag Rank" to refer to generals and admirals of the services collectively.

See also

External links



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Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 12:23:48 PDT (GMT -0700)
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