Can there possibly be two officers of the same rank serving on the same vessel? And if so who is in charge? (I.e two lieutenant junior grade officers on the same ship)
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This is tangential, but one of my favorite Navy / Marine Corps trivia. Bear with me as I set this up.
Officer rank titles across the services differ, but the government designation is “O” then a number. So an O2 outranks an O1 regardless of branch.
Now, the Navy has a rank called Captain that’s an O6. Please done confuse this with the title of captain, which applies when you are given command of a vessel. A Navy O5, which is the rank Commander, can be a ship’s captain. And you sometimes refer to that person as Captain So-and-So (despite being Commander So-and-So).
In the Marine Corps, a Captain is an O3. A Major is an O4. Marines can be assigned to a ship, either as a security detail or as part of a deployment unit, taxied around by our sister service, the Navy.
Most nights, on a ship, all officers not on duty have an Officers Dinner with the ships captain. Now, you cannot have two captains on a ship, especially when one is a lowly Marine Captain. So, during these dinners, a Marine Captain is “promoted” to Major so as to avoid confusing the Navy personnel in attendance.
Don’t confuse the Captain “Majors” with the Major Majors. And certainly don’t confuse the either Major for the Major General.
And first fuck sake, don’t ask about the Rear Admiral . . .
Oh, and Petty Officers . . . but that’s a different story.
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