Yep, he was already a major. Now he’s a commander (unless my memory is completely shot).
Umm…you think the naked Boomers walking around were crew?
They were cargo/passengers.
The BaseStar was all juicy inside.
-Joe
My point being that, one month later, Lee being a Major seemed like a novelty to Dualla.
-Joe
I thought Lucifer worked for Baltar.
Oh wait, wrong series…
I remember Starbuck making Captain, but I don’t recall Lee getting promoted to Major. Anyone remember what episode he got promoted in, if not in this latest one? Promoting him from Major to Commander is a pretty big jump, isn’t it? He skipped Lt. Col & Col. What happens when Pegasus eventually goes away? Lee is going to be a commander with nothing to command.
Isn’t there a Maj Kelly running around the CIC? The guy who’s in charge when Tigh & Adama aren’t around? Wonder why he got passed over.
Does anyone know how long the fleet has been out there now? First season took place over just a couple few months, but now every episode seems to be roughly “a month later” from the previous episode.
One minor thing about this episode that bugged me a bit was all the glass breaking on the bridge of the Pegasus when they took a hit from the Cylons. Seemed kinda silly to me to have all that breakable glass all over the place. Haven’t they invented plexiglass or something?
Man, I have GOT to set up some symbiosis like that!
The hierarchy in the Galactica universe evidently don’t correspond neatly with ranks in the armed forces in our world. Commander is a naval rank, one grade below a naval captain, followed (in ascending order) by a rear admiral, vice admiral, admiral, and fleet admiral. A military captain is a different (and lower) grade than a naval captain, one grade below a major, followed (in ascending order) by lieutenant colonel, colonel, and general. A commander in the navy is equivalent to a lieutenant colonel in the army or marines, so maybe Lee Adama didn’t skip lieutenant colonel – maybe he just shifted from army/marine ranks to naval ranks when he got command of a ship.
All very confusing though. Col Tigh is outranked by Commander (now Admiral) Adama, who commands an entire Battlestar. Commander has to be higher than Colonel. Lee went from Captain to Major to Commander, so he had to skip Colonel, at least. Unless Colonel and Commander are the same grade, simply called different things based on position.
Well, I’ll betcha dollars to donuts that the second season ends exactly nine months after Boomer bot got pregnant…
BSG ranks are as follows:
Grunts: Deck Hands and Specialists
Senior Grunts: Petty Officers, Corporals, Sergeants
Chief Petty Officer
Ensign
Lieutentant Junior Grade
Lieutentant
Captain
Major
Colonel
Commander
Admiral
The rapid promotion program for the Adama family leaves me a bit skeptical, too. But then, I guess we can point to the patently awful record of the Pegasus’s command crew and then look at the remainder of the military (on Galactica) and just say “If not Lee, then who, exactly?” Most of the fleet despises Tigh and Starbuck is no longer in the running for “Best ______ in the Fleet” anymore, after her dismal performance as a Covert Operative.
In fact, now that I think of it, it really comes down to “Which officer in this pool is not a drunk?”
Regarding the original CAG of the Pegasus (Stinger), who Starbuck referred to in this ep as having been tossed in the brig or something, the actor is no longer available for the show. He wasn’t even available for Res Ship Pt. 2 (per the Podcast of Pt. 1)
William Tecumseh Sherman. 
In re: the ranks on Galactica, I remember hearing (in an early podcast?) that during the First Cylon War, Tighe was involved in repeated close engagements with actual Cylon troops, which is part of the reason for him being such a PTSD headcase. It was only the Colonials being short-handed that had him end up as a combat pilot before the war’s end.
I’m thinking he might actually be a Marine officer with a Fleet rank, and that he prefers the Marine rank when addressed. It would explain why a colonel is barking orders on the bridge, anyway.
Admiral Cain’s XO on Pegasus was a Colonel as well.
Dang! Well it was a good theory.
Maybe it’s some weird-ass thing where, typically, you’ll have a Navy man as the Commander and a Marine man as the XO? That way, unless you have a man out of commission you’ll have the Marine taking care of areas that fit him and the Navy man running the ship?
Of course, in TV and movies Commander always seems to be the penultimate rank…
-Joe
I thought it would make sense since we’ve never seen a Marine top kit, someone that would be pretty important in the post-war command structure on Galactica. It would fit in neatly if it turned out that Tighe was the Marine CO who did double duty as ship’s XO, explaining the gap in the chain of command, since the marines always seem to do what Adama wants but don’t have an officer of their own telling them what that thing is.
Oh well, maybe they’ll explain later. I always thought Tighe’s background would make for more cool flashbacks.
I thought since they were to be a museum piece they had no marine officers aboard.
We should see some from Pegasus, though…
Yeah, I can’t remember where I heard it, but most of the Marine command had just transferred off Galactica right before the decommissioning. That “Gunney” guy is probably in charge of the Marines. Adama should give him a battlefield promotion to an appropriate officer rank. It might be an interesting plot for an episode, the dyed in the wool Marine NCO having to step into an officer’s role, which he normally holds in distain.
**“DO I LOOK LIKE AN OFFICER, MAGGOT? YOU WILL NOT ADDRESS ME AS SIR! YOU WILL ADDRESS ME AS…**wait a minute…”