Major

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This article is about the military rank. For other uses, see Major (disambiguation).
"Maj" redirects here. For the epic poem by Karel Hynek Mácha, see Máj.
Common military ranks
Officers
Navies Armies Air forces
Admiral of
the Fleet		 Field Marshal Marshal of
the Air Force
Admiral General Air Marshal
Commodore Brigadier Air Commodore
Captain Colonel Group Captain
Commander Lt. Colonel Wing Commander
Lt. Commander Major Squadron Leader
Lieutenant Captain Flight Lieutenant
Sub-Lieutenant Lieutenant Flying Officer
Ensign 2nd Lieutenant Pilot Officer
Midshipman Officer Cadet Officer Cadet
Seamen, soldiers and airmen
Warrant Officer Sergeant Major Warrant Officer
Petty Officer Sergeant Sergeant
Leading Rate Corporal Corporal
Seaman Private Aircraftman

In many European languages, the term Major refers to a military rank, denoting seniority at one of usually various levels of rank, for example: "General-Major" or "Major-General" denoting a senior ranking general officer. "Captain-Major", denoting a mid-level command status officer (immediately superior to the rank of a land-forces Captain but immediately subordinate to the ranks of Colonel and/or Lieutenant Colonel; and "Sergeant-Major denoting the most senior ranking sergeant of a large military unit; In the US Army and US Marine Corps, a Major is typically a staff officer; normally the Executive Officer (XO) within a battalion (second in command) and an Operations Officer (S-3). Captains are normally Company Commanders (Armor & Infantry), Troop Commanders (Cavalry), and Battery Commanders (Artillery).

Most often, when the term 'major' occurs unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of a land-forces 'captain'. In some countries, most notably in France, an unhyphenated "major" derives from "sergeant-major", a senior-level sub-officer rank. Much more rarely, the unhyphenated term has also often been used to denote senior-ranking general officers, usually in countries where European languages are foreign and interpreters fail to recognize the multiple levels of 'major' ranks in European militaries, and is used to indicate the most senior of all generals, or in countries of recurring civil war and upheaval, where it is not all that uncommon for a low-ranking officer to rise in rank quite rapidly and become the leader of some faction or another, and in order to avoid the potentially deadly mistake of mis-addressing a colonel as "captain" or a general as either "captain" or "colonel", it is simply safer to address anyone of unknown rank as "major" until otherwise corrected, for its convenient ambiguity.

Contents

[edit] Links to Major ranks by country

[edit] Links to ranks equivalent to Major by country

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major"
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