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Militaries are composed of two main types of personnel: enlisted men and women and officers. To become an officer usually requires studying military science for four years at a college, university or military academy and is usually done with the intent to make a career in the military. In contrast, enlisted men and women tend to receive much less training and education before they are put to work--sometimes only eleven weeks of recruit training--and often leave the military after the end of their initial term of commitment, which can be as short as two or three years.
Officers and enlisted personnel are highly segregated: e.g., on ships and in permanent facilities they typically eat their meals and recreate in separate facilities.
Parenthetically, there is often a third type of personnel, small in numbers, called the warrant officer. Detectives, for example, who investigate crimes are in the U.S. military are warrant officers--probably because giving them an officer rank would make it harder for them to interrogate officers who outrank them. (The warrant officer ranks are not commensurate with the officer ranks.)
Officers are properly called commissioned officers to distinguish them from non-commissioned officers, who are high-ranking enlisted personnel. Sergeants, for example, are non-commissioned officers.
Legally speaking, a commissioned officer is a member of the service who derives authority directly from a sovereign power, and as such holds a commission from that power.
Commissioned officers are authorized to use deadly force to carry out the lawful orders of their government, either directly or through orders to non-commissioned officers or soldiers.
Having officers is one requirement for combatant status under the laws of war, though these officers need not be commissioned.
In the United States, there are some uniformed commissioned officers who are not members of the military. See uniformed services of the United States, NOAA Corps, and United States Public Health Service.
British and American commissioned officer ranks Many of the militaries of the world base their officer ranks upon the officer ranks of the British and American militaries. Officer ranks are typically differently titled but equivalent in rank between the army and navy. For more information, see Comparative military ranks.
British Commissioned Officer Ranks
Army/Royal Marines The highest rank currently held by a Royal Marines officer is Lieutenant-General, although the rank of General still exists. The position of Captain-General, which is currently held by the Duke of Edinburgh, is an office similar to that of Colonel-in-Chief, and is not a rank, although the insignia is that of a Field Marshal.
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
US commissioned officer ranks
Army / Air Force / Marine Corps
Navy / Coast Guard
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