Originally posted by: marvdmartian
Originally posted by: BoomerD
A Navy captain is about the same rank as a Marine Corps Major...maybe a Colonel, depends on the job.
Um.....NO. A marine Major is equivalent to a navy Lt Commander (gold oak leaf). USMC Lt Colonet = Navy Commander (silver oak leaf), and USMC Colonel = Navy Captain (eagles). There's no way a major = captain, in any service.
What you might be thinking of is that on smaller ships, a navy LCDR or CDR can be the commanding officer, oftentimes reffered to as "Captain". Not an official rank, just a label.
Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
If a major outranks a lieutenant why does a lieutenant general outrank a major general?
That goes back to revolutionary war days, when the general rank structures went as such:
1 star = brigadier general
2 stars =
sergeant major general
3 stars = lieutenant general
4 stars = general of the army
(for the most part, they didn't wear the stars back then, but I reference it so it's easier for the layman to understand it)
Eventually, the sergeant major general rank was shortened to major general, but kept below the level of a lieutenant general.
So far as the Seabees go, they have the same rank structure as the rest of the navy. The non-rated/non petty officer ranks are different, depending on the job they have (or, at least, were 28 years ago, when I enlisted).
Seabees = Constructionman
Engineers = Fireman
Aviation types = Airman
Everyone else = Seaman
and are, in order from E1 to E3, a recruit, an apprentice, then the name listed above (in other words, seabees are Constructionman Recruit, Constructionman Apprentice, then Constructionman).
Oh, and the reason the navy has to give the marines a ride everywhere is because the jarheads kept getting lost........or at least, that was their official excuse for hunting beer!