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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: Never Understood
(A) Gold is far more valuable than silver, but an Ensign and Second Lt. with gold insignia are below First Lt.s and Captains and JG's and Lts. (Navy) who wear silver insignia...same with Lt. Cols who wear silver leaves and rank Majors who wear gold (i.e. see LCRD's. and CDR's) (B) A Major ranks a Lt....yet a Major General (two stars) is ranked by a Lt. General (three stars) (C) Non-Coms are given warrants confirming their ranks and positions...Officers are given commissions after being confirmed by Congress...So what in the hell is a commissioned warrant officer? Is it something like a zebra duck? Never made sense.....I'm sure their's some kind of perfectly understandable explanation....What's a Sgt. Major? Is he half Sgt. and half Major? Ah. the ignorance of a Leading Seaman...and Two-Way Trash Dumper. DEX |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 124
| Subject: RE: Never Understood
I have wonder the same thing about the gold and silver bars and oak leaves. That must go back to a long time ago.
Also, I have never understood the Lt. General and Major General ranks. It always seemed backwards to me.
Shouldn't a Commodore (one star) be called Rear Admiral (most lowest)? |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1431
| Subject: RE: Never Understood
Gold is worth more than silver, but silver outranks gold. This is because the Army decreed in 1832 that infantry colonels would wear gold eagles on an epaulette of silver and all other colonels would wear silver eagles on gold. When majors and lieutenant colonels received the leaves, this tradition could not continue. So silver leaves represented lieutenant colonels and gold, majors. The case of lieutenants is different: First lieutenants had been wearing silver bars for 80 years before second lieutenants had any bars at all. |
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Never Understood
