# If we develop military spaceships will they use Naval or Air Force rank designations?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-develop-military-spaceships-will-they-use-naval-or-air-force-rank-designations/392300>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 15, 2007, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-develop-military-spaceships-will-they-use-naval-or-air-force-rank-designations/392300 "2007-02-15T02:43:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-develop-military-spaceships-will-they-use-naval-or-air-force-rank-designations/392300/41 "2007-02-22T01:50:49Z")

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No, I’m agreeing with it completely.

> [@me](#):
>
> the next move is to standardize the upper grades by tacking on “-general” to the field-officer rank titles, displacing the old titlings.

The concept of the “General Officer” in the West originates with the Captain-General, AND the rank/billet/posting/grade that in Anglophone armies is referred to as “General” with no qualifier, descends from the Colonel-General.

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**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-develop-military-spaceships-will-they-use-naval-or-air-force-rank-designations/392300/42 "2007-02-22T05:56:44Z")

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The job/rank titles of the USPHS, with corresponding Civil Service grades and such:

“Non-supervisory”  
O-1:Junior Assistant Whatever/Ensign/GS-9  
O-2:Assistant Whatever/Lietenant Junior Grade/GS-10  
O-3:Senior Assistant Whatever/Lieutenant/GS-11  
O-4:Full Whatever/Lietenant Commander/GS-12

“Mixed Supervisory and Non-supervisory”  
O-5:Senior Whatever/Commander/GS-13,14  
O-6:Whatever Director/Captain/GS 14,15

“Senior Supervisory”  
O-7,8:Assistant Surgeon General/Rear Admiral(Lower Half)/SES  
O-8: Deputy Surgeon General/Rear Admiral(Upper Half)/SES

These are temporary rank/grade/titles:

“Political”  
O-9:Surgeon General/Vice Admiral/(Political Appointee, Temporary)  
O-10:Assistant Secretary of Health Affairs or Something Like It/Admiral/(Political Appointee, Temporary)

NOAA also has a Navy style rank structure.

As for the topic at hand, the Air Force and Navy have most commonly contributed military personnel to the space program. I suspect that a “rank merge” will take place at some point in a new service…It depends on how you view the capital space ships … if you view them as big-ass carriers a la Space: Above and Beyond, you get a “Vacuum Navy.” If you view them as little air force bases that happen to move around, you get the air force structure…

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