Captain

Captain is a military rank, the equivalent of which is used by the service organizations of many civilizations.

Navy captain
As a traditional naval grade, captain is the most senior line officer rank, usually given to starship commanders. This naval rank is equivalent to the infantry rank of colonel, the Romulan Star Empire's Commander grade, the Cardassian Union's title of Gul and the Ferengi Alliance's quasi-military Daimon title.

On starships, the term captain is also often used as a synonym to commanding officer. Proper naval parlance says that, even if a vessel is commanded by an officer whose rank is lower than captain, that officer is still able to be referred to as a captain while on the deck of their own vessel, no matter their literal commissioned rank.

Captains of starships, often located hundreds of light-years away from and out of communications with higher authority, must be able to function autonomously and make independent command decisions affecting Federation policy and countless lives. Accordingly, few Starfleet officers ever gain the captaincy of a starship, the result of decades of sustained excellence as a Starfleet leader.

A senior Captain given a large degree of responsibility or administrative assignment is sometimes given the title of Fleet Captain, although this is a title of authority, not a true higher grade.


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Army captain
As an infantry rank in a fighting organization, captains rank subordinate to a Major and above a First Lieutenant. In comparison to naval ranking systems, this rank is equivalent to the naval senior Lieutenant rank. A Captain commands a company, which is comprised of 100-300 soldiers.

This rank was used by the United States armed forces (represented by double rectangular silver bar uniform insignia), and also by World War II Germany. In the German army, this was translated as Hauptmann (headman), but in the SS, company Captains were referred to as Hauptsturmführer ("head storm leader"). The collar insignia for this was a black square bordered with white, with three silver pips in a diagonal line, with two stripes underneath.

In 2364, the Q-entity took the form of a USMC Captain when confronting Captain Picard.

In a holodeck simulation of a Nazi campaign in France, a group of Hirogen pitted the crew of USS Voyager against holographic 1940s Germans. A US Army Captain named Miller was the role assigned to Chakotay in the program; an SS Hauptsturmführer Captain was another character in the simulation.


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