A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the position from which that officer exercises command.
24-631: Vice Admiral Sir Charles Anthony Johnstone-Burt , KCVO , CB , OBE , DL (born 1 February 1958) is a retired Royal Navy officer who is currently serving as the Master of the Household . In this role, he took part in the 2023 Coronation . Johnstone-Burt was educated at Wellington College and Van Mildert College at Durham University , where he took Joint Honours in Psychology and Anthropology in 1980. Johnstone-Burt joined
48-458: A broad pennant , not a flag), and army and air force generals in command of commands or formations also have their own flags, but are not called flag officers. Base commanders, usually full colonels , have a pennant that flies from the mast or flagpole on the base, when resident, or on vehicles that carry them. A flag officer's rank is denoted by a wide strip of gold braid on the cuff of the service dress tunic, one to four gold maple leaves over
72-412: A three-star rank , when the number of stars on the shoulder board were increased to three. Flag officer Different countries use the term "flag officer" in different ways: The generic title of flag officer is used in many modern navies and coast guards to denote those who hold the rank of rear admiral or its equivalent and above, also called "flag ranks". In some navies, this also includes
96-471: A crossed sword and baton, all beneath a royal crown, on epaulettes and shoulder boards ; and two rows of gold oak leaves on the peak of the service cap. Since the unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968, a flag officer's dress tunic had a single broad stripe on the sleeve and epaulettes. In May 2010 the naval uniform dark dress tunic was adjusted—exterior epaulettes were removed, reverting to
120-492: A flag. For example, a Commander-in-Chief Fleet flies an admiral's flag whether ashore or afloat and is a "flag officer". The chief of staff (support), a rear admiral, is not entitled to fly a flag and is an "officer of flag rank" rather than a "flag officer". List of fleets and major commands of the Royal Navy lists most admirals who were "flag officers". A flag officer's junior officer is often known as "Flags". Flag Officers in
144-476: A retired full admiral, and that of Vice-Admiral of the Coast , a now obsolete office dealing with naval administration in each of the maritime counties. Vice-admirals are entitled to fly a personal flag . A vice-admiral flies a St George's cross defaced with a red disc in the hoist. The rank of vice-admiral itself is shown in its sleeve lace by a broad band with two narrower bands. Since 2001, it has been designated
168-509: Is air marshal . The Royal Navy has had vice-admirals since at least the 16th century. When the fleet was deployed, the vice-admiral would be in the leading portion or van , acting as the deputy to the admiral. The rank of Vice-Admiral evolved from that of Lieutenant of the Admiralty (1546–1564) that being an officer who acted as secretary to the Lord Admiral of England and lapsed in 1876 but
192-402: Is still widely used to refer to any officer of flag rank. Present usage is that rear admirals and above are officers of flag rank, but only those officers who are authorised to fly a flag are formally called "flag officers" and have different flags for different ranks of admiral . Of the 39 officers of flag rank in the Royal Navy in 2006, very few were "flag officers" with entitlement to fly
216-700: The Army ; commodores , rear admirals , vice admirals and admirals in the Navy ; and air commodores , air vice marshals , air marshals and air chief marshals in the Air Force . Each of these flag officers are designated with a specific flag. India's honorary ranks ( five star ranks ) are field marshal in the Army, Marshal of the Indian Air Force in the Air Force and admiral of
240-467: The Canadian Armed Forces , a flag officer ( French : officier général , "general officer") is an admiral , vice admiral , rear admiral , or commodore , the naval equivalent of a general officer of the army or air force. It is a somewhat counterintuitive usage of the term, as only flag officers in command of commands or formations actually have their own flags (technically a commodore has only
264-552: The Master of the Household to the Sovereign . In this role, he took part in the 2023 Coronation . He was a member of the Board of Governors of Monkton Combe School from 2004. He was also a member of the Board of Governors and Chair at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls from 2014 to 2018. He was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Dorset on 22 August 2016. This gave him
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#1732858312215288-688: The Post Nominal Letters "DL" for Life. Vice-admiral (Royal Navy) A vice-admiral ( VAdm ) is a flag officer rank of the Royal Navy and equates to the NATO rank code OF-8 . It is immediately superior to the rear admiral rank and is subordinate to the full admiral rank. The equivalent rank in the British Army and Royal Marines is lieutenant-general ; and in the Royal Air Force , it
312-707: The Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 2002 and then Captain of HMS Ocean in 2004. He went on to be Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Joint Helicopter Command in 2005, Flag Officer, Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland in 2006, and Commander of the Joint Helicopter Command in 2008 before being appointed Director of Counter Narcotics and International Organised Crime at Headquarters International Security Assistance Force in Kabul , Afghanistan in 2011. Promoted to vice admiral , he became
336-628: The Royal Navy in 1977. Promoted to lieutenant in January 1982, served in HMS ; Active during the Falklands War . He qualified as a helicopter pilot in 1983 flying Sea Kings and Lynx helicopters . He qualified as a principal warfare officer and served in several frigates before being appointed as first lieutenant and second-in-command of HMS Scylla in 1991. He was appointed commanding officer of HMS Brave in 1994 and went on to study at
360-719: The Chief of Staff to NATO's Supreme Allied Command Transformation at Norfolk, Virginia , in November 2011 and held this post until October 2013 when he retired from the Service. Johnstone-Burt was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2013 New Year Honours , and Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2020 Birthday Honours . In 2013 Johnstone-Burt became
384-603: The Navy and Coast Guard). Non-naval officers usually fly their flags from their headquarters, vessels, or vehicles, typically only for the most senior officer present. In the United States all flag and general officers must be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate . Each subsequent promotion requires renomination and re-approval. For the Navy, each flag officer assignment
408-510: The Royal Navy are considered as Rear-Admirals and above. Equivalent ranks in the British Army and Royal Marines are called general officer rather than flag officers, and those in the Royal Air Force (as well as the rank of air commodore ) are called air officers , although all are entitled to fly flags of rank. Captain was the highest rank in the United States Navy from its beginning in 1775 until 1857, when Congress created
432-548: The United States Army , Air Force , and Marine Corps , the term "flag officer" generally is applied to all general officers authorized to fly their own command flags —i.e., brigadier general , or pay grade O-7, and above. As a matter of law, Title 10 of the United States Code makes a distinction between general officers and flag officers (general officer for the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force; flag officer for
456-772: The United States Naval War College , where courses are affiliated with Salve Regina University in Rhode Island , taking a Master of Arts in International Relations from 1996 to 1997. He also attended the Higher Command and Staff Course at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in 2000. Johnstone-Burt was appointed commanding officer of HMS Montrose and Captain of the 6th Frigate Squadron in 2000 before becoming Commodore of
480-542: The fleet in the Navy. A similar equivalence is applied to senior police officers of rank Deputy Inspector General (DIG) , Inspector General (IG) , Additional Director General (ADG) and Director General (DG) . In the United Kingdom, the term is only used for the Royal Navy , with there being a more specific distinction being between a "flag officer" and an "officer of flag rank". Formerly, all officers promoted to flag rank were considered to be "flag officers". The term
504-420: The rank of commodore . Flag officer corresponds to the generic terms general officer , used by land and some air forces to describe all grades of generals, and air officer , used by other air forces to describe all grades of air marshals and air commodores . A flag officer sometimes is a junior officer , called a flag lieutenant or flag adjutant , attached as a personal adjutant or aide-de-camp . In
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#1732858312215528-473: The sleeve ring and executive curl -rank insignia used by most navies. commodores ' uniforms display a broad stripe, and each succeeding rank receives an additional sleeve ring. There are no epaulettes on the exterior of the tunic, but they are still worn on the uniform shirt underneath. In the Indian Armed Forces , it is applied to brigadiers , major generals , lieutenant generals and generals in
552-528: The temporary rank of flag officer, which was bestowed on senior Navy captains who were assigned to lead a squadron of vessels in addition to command of their own ship. This temporary usage gave way to the permanent ranks of commodore and rear admiral in 1862. The term "flag officer" is still in use today, explicitly defined as an officer of the U.S. Navy or Coast Guard serving in or having the grade of admiral, vice admiral, rear admiral, or rear admiral (lower half), equivalent to general officers of an army. In
576-412: Was revived in 1901 by King Edward VII . Prior to 1864 the Royal Navy was divided into coloured squadrons which determined his career path . The command flags flown by a Vice-Admiral changed a number of times during this period. In the Royal Navy, the rank of vice-admiral should be distinguished from the office of Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom , which is an Admiralty position usually held by
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