Dafmeister wrote:No, Commodore is a defined rank, not a position.
Great, I get another chance to be pedantic.
No not always, the USN discontinued it twice. I decided to look it up, because I am totally anal about vocabulary, and because it is used both as a rank (Commodore Magellan, &) and as a position (Commodore Zavala, always Captain to his face, commodore when he was talked about).
The American Heritage Dictionary was included in the software package when I bought this iBook in 2004; it is only good for everyday usages.
[quote]
American Heritage Dictionary:
commodore |ˈkäməˌdôr|
noun
a naval officer of high rank, in particular an officer in the U.S. Navy or Coast Guard ranking above captain and below rear admiral.
• the president of a yacht club.
• the senior captain of a shipping line.
ORIGIN late 17th cent.: probably from Dutch komandeur, from French commandeur ‘commander.’
Here is a different source: I added the bold, since I dumped all their formatting. I noted when looking at the entry that there is a sidebar of naval ranks, and RFC uses nearly all of the listed titles (in the different navies).
From Wikipedia: Commodore (rank)
Commodore is a naval rank used in many navies that is superior to a navy captain, but below a rear admiral. Non-English-speaking nations often use the rank of flotilla admiral or counter admiral or senior captain as an equivalent, although the latter may also correspond to rear admiral.
Traditionally, "commodore" is the title for any officer assigned to command more than one ship at a time, even temporarily, much as "captain" is the traditional title for the commanding officer of a single ship even if the officer's official title in the service is a lower rank. As an official rank, a commodore typically commands a flotilla or squadron of ships as part of a larger task force or naval fleet commanded by an admiral.
Etymology[edit]
The rank of commodore derives from the French commandeur, which was one of the highest ranks in orders of knighthood, and in military orders the title of the knight in charge of a commenda (a local part of the order's territorial possessions).
History[edit]
The Dutch Navy also used the rank of commandeur from the end of the 16th century for a variety of temporary positions, until it became a conventional permanent rank
in 1955.
...
The rank of commodore was at first a position created as a temporary title to be bestowed upon captains who commanded squadrons of more than one vessel. In many navies, the rank of commodore was merely viewed as a senior captain position, whereas other naval services bestowed upon the rank of commodore the prestige of flag officer status.
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United States[edit]
Main article: Commodore (United States)
In 1899 the substantive rank of commodore was discontinued in the United States Navy, but revived during World War II. It was discontinued as a rank in these services during the postwar period, but as an appointment, the title [b]"commodore" was then used to identify senior U.S. Navy captains who commanded squadrons of more than one vessel or functional air wings or air groups that were not part of a carrier air wing or air group. Concurrently, until the early 1980s snip.
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There, more than anyone would want to know.
Rob
