Lieutenant-Commander    

Lieutenant-Commander
CF tunic braid shown
Seniority
Above:	Lieutenant(N)
Below:	Commander

Lieutenant-Commander (Lieutenant Commander in the USN) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies superior to a Lieutenant and subordinate to a Commander. The corresponding rank in most armies, (armed services) and air forces is Major, and in the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces is Squadron Leader also. It is translated in French as capitaine de corvette.

A Lieutenant Commander is a senior department officer on a large ship or shore installation. He may also be commanding officer or executive officer (second-in-command) of a smaller ship or installation.

Origins

Lieutenants were commonly put in command of smaller vessels not warranting a Commander or Captain: such a Lieutenant was called a "Lieutenant Commanding" or "Lieutenant Commandant" in the United States Navy, and a "Lieutenant in Command" or "Lieutenant and Commander" in the Royal Navy. The USN settled on "Lieutenant Commander" in 1862, and made it a distinct rank; the RN followed suit in March 1914.

Royal Navy

Royal Navy Lieutenant-commander braid

Having fewer officer ranks than the army, the RN previously split some of its ranks by seniority (time in rank) to provide equivalence: hence a Lieutenant with fewer than eight years' seniority wore two stripes, and ranked with an army Captain; a Lieutenant of eight years or more wore two stripes with a thinner one in between, and ranked with a Major. This distinction was abolished when the rank of Lieutenant-Commander was introduced, the new rank taking the insignia and army equivalence of a senior Lieutenant.

Similar insignia is worn by Lieutenant-Commanders in other Commonwealth navies, such as the Royal Australian Navy (which uses the abbreviation "LCDR"), the Royal New Zealand Navy and the Canadian Forces Maritime Command (formerly the Royal Canadian Navy; which uses the abbreviation "LCdr"). Unlike the United States Navy, personnel in the Royal Navy or other Commonwealth Navies addressing a Lieutenant-Commander do not abbreviate the rank to "Commander."

Canada

Lieutenant Commanders are senior to Lieutenant (N)s and to army and air force Captains, and are junior to Commanders and Lieutenant Colonels.

Typical appointments for Lieutenant Commanders include:

• Commanding Officer of a minor warship, submarine or Naval Reserve Division
• Commander of a division within a school or training establishment
• Executive Officer or department head within a frigate, destroyer, supply ship or Naval Reserve Division.
• Staff officer on a formation or task group headquarters staff.

The rank insignia for a Lieutenant Commander is two 1/2-in. (13 mm) stripes with a 1/4-in. (6.4 mm) stripe between, worn on the cuffs of the service dress jacket, and on slip-ons on other uniforms. As senior officers, they wear one row of gold oak leaves along the edge of the visor of their service caps. Lieutenant Commanders of the Maritime Surface/Subsurface branch wear the officer's pattern of the naval operations branch cap badge: an anchor on a black oval, surrounded by a wreath of maple leaves. Specialist officers in such branches as Logistics, Intelligence, Medical, etc, wear their branch cap badges.

Within the Cadet Instructor Cadre

Usually, lieutenant-commanders are senior staff officers on cadet summer training centres, commanding officers and senior officers of Regional Cadet Instructor Schools, department head at Regional Cadet Support Units and commanding officer of cadet corps with quotas of over 90 cadets.

Canadian Naval officer's rank update

Canadian Forces rank of Lieutenant-Commander worn between 1968 until a maximum date of 2011

On 5 March 2010, Conservative Member of Parliament for the riding of Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, Mr. Guy Lauzon, issued the following motion: ""That, in the opinion of the House, in light of the upcoming centennial of the Canadian Navy, the government should consider reinstating the Navy executive curl on its uniforms." The motion passed, and on 2 May 2010, (Battle of the Atlantic Sunday), the Minister of National Defence, the Honourable Peter Gordon Mackay, P.C., Q.C., B.A., LL.B., made the announcement of the return of the Executive Curl for Canadian naval officers.

Canadian Lieutenant-Commanders will begin wearing two and a half braids with the executive curl staring on 11 June 2010.

United States

In the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps, lieutenant commander (LCDR) is a junior officer rank, with the pay grade of O-4. Lieutenant commander ranks above lieutenant and below commander. Lieutenant commander is equivalent to the rank of major in the other uniformed services.

While the gold oak leaf collar insignia worn by United States Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps Majors is also worn by lieutenant commanders, they also wear on various uniforms the two medium and one narrow sleeve and shoulder braid stripe insignia like their counterparts in the Royal Navy, though with a specialty insignia instead of a loop. In this illustration, the inverted star of a line officer is used.

In both the US Navy and US Coast Guard, the three classes of commissioned officers: flag, senior, and junior differ slightly from their Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force counterparts of General, Field Grade, and Company Grade. In the Navy and Coast Guard, the lieutenant commander is the most senior of the junior officer ranks.

While a lieutenant commander is paid the same as a major with the same years of service, he or she does not rate the same privileges. In the land and air forces, a major rates better billeting, housing, or berthing than a captain (O-3). The Major's accommodations and privileges are of the same class as a Lieutenant Colonel's and Colonel's. A Lieutenant Commander's is not the same as that of a Commander's or Captain's. The most visible sign is the lack of gold leaves on the brim of the combination cover (or peaked hat). In both the Coast Guard and Navy, the peak is plain patent leather. In the land and air forces, respectively, a Major's peak has gold leaves or silver clouds upon it.

In US Naval Aviation, this difference shows up occasionally in two areas, on board aircraft carriers and in flight training. On US Navy aircraft carriers, Marine Corps Majors with embarked aviation units are assigned senior officer single occupancy staterooms when they are available, while lieutenant commanders are assigned to either two or four man staterooms, but rarely to the 8 man "JO Jungles." In flight training, Air Force and Marine Majors on Navy bases rate senior officer housing.

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Lieutenant-Commander. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Information concerning use of copyright protected material can be found at the CWwiki Copyright Policy Page.