Quote from Liam
*Any rank of below LTCDR/ O-5 rank, is below "Flag rank", in anyone's Navy, wet or Space.
I thought that flag rank starts at Rear Admiral and goes up from there. Commanders and Captains do not fly there own flag.
Right?
History Lesson...
A few navies are/were commanded by O-6 equivalents. In the early US (to about 1860), all "flag officers" were ranked as Captains 1st Class, with only positional authority. Only the Army had actual general officers. The US only fell into line on the issue in order to get proper treatment for its commodores and admiralty by foreigners. Note that squadron commanders had their 1-star flags, even tho' they didn't actually hold the rank. In general, tho' US/Traveller O-7 is the start of Flag Rank... which may be commodore, or might not, depending on when and in whose service one is. But not always - Commodores were not flag ranks in some navies, even tho they were the 8th officer rank (those had Ensign, 3 lieutenants, 3 "captains", and commodore). (Likewise, the rank above Colonel isn't always a General officer, either.)
Note that, from about 1800-1862, the US "Commodores" were, as they are at present, positions not ranks. The CNO, nominally a commodore, was a captain 1st class but positionally senior to all other captains, including commodores of the fleets. Commodore became a rank in 1862, stopped again in 1900, was retained as an ordinarily unused rank into the 1950's, was restored briefly in the 1980s, then returned to being "rear admiral lower half", even as they had been for pay purposes since the 1920's (But the title and insignia were simply RAdm with 2 stars, whether upper or lower half of the Admiral's list, and the lower half of the RAdms nominally were O-8's paid as O-7's...)
I'll note also: my 1981 imprint NS1 manual listed commodore as a rank, even tho it wasn't generally used.