Flag Officer
A
Flag Officer is a naval officer of a high rank entitling him to fly a personal flag, especially on his
flagship.
The generic title of "Flag Officer" is used in several modern 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 used by land (and often air) forces to describe all grades of Generals. 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 a
Flag Lieutenant or a
Flag Adjutant, attached to him as a personal
adjutant (not unlike an
aide-de-camp) regardless of any staff under his command. In the Royal Navy, this officer is often known as "Flags".
In the
Canadian Forces, a Flag Officer (
French:
Officier général, "general officer") is the naval equivalent of a
General Officer of the army or air force, and comprises the ranks of
Commodore,
Rear-Admiral,
Vice-Admiral, and
Admiral. A Flag Officer's rank is denoted by a wide strip of gold braid on the cuff of the Service Dress tunic; one to four gold maple leafs over crossed sword and baton, all beneath a Royal crown, on slip-ons or epaulets; and two rows of gold oak leaves on the peak of the Service Cap.
In the
Royal Navy there is a distinction between "Flag Officer" and "Officer of Flag Rank". All Rear-Admirals and above are officers of flag rank. But only those officers of flag rank who are authorised to fly a flag are called "flag officers" and there are different flags for different ranks of
Admiral. Thus, of the 39 Officers of Flag Rank in the Royal Navy in 2006, very few are "flag officers" with entitlement to fly a flag. For example,
Commander-in-Chief Fleet flies an Admiral's flag whether ashore or afloat and is, therefore, a "flag officer"; his Chief of Staff (Support), a Rear-Admiral, is not entitled to fly a flag and is, therefore, only an "officer of flag rank".
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.
