Colonel

Colonel (pronounced KUR-nal) is a military rank, the equivalent of which is used by the service organizations of many civilizations. As a traditional grade, Colonel is the most senior line officer rank of a fighting organization, below the flag rank of General and senior to the rank of Major. In comparison to naval ranking systems, this rank is equivalent to the naval Captain rank, the Romulan Star Empire's Commander grade, the Ferengi Alliance's Daimon, or the Cardassian Union's title of Gul. A Colonel commands a brigade, an army unit consisting of a variable number (but not less than two) regiments.

Some rank systems have an additional grade, Lieutenant Colonel, which falls between Colonel and Major.

In Starfleet, a Colonel named West was in charge of a military briefing to the Federation President.

This grade exists in some form in many cultures' rank arrangements, such as the Klingon Defense Force, and the United States armed forces of Earth. The US insignia for a Colonel is a silver rank pin or embroidery shaped like a stylized eagle, holding olive branches in one claw and arrows in the other. The Union Army of the US Civil War had Colonel's insignia displayed on two epaulet shoulder straps with colored backgrounds, while later US forces would wear the insignia on the collar or epaulet without a background field. The 19th century version had the eagle's beak facing the side he held his arrows (the so-called "war eagle"), while the 20th century revision (shown) had the beak facing the side holding the olive branches.

In the Confederate Army during the US Civil War, a Colonel would wear three five-pointed stars on either side of his collar.

In the German armed forces of World War II, Colonels wore a single oak leaf insignia on their collar patch, and two metal pips on their shoulder boards. Translated into German as Oberst, Colonels of the SS were referred to by the title Standartenführer.

In the Bajoran Militia, a Colonel wears a silver Bajoran insignia pin on the collar.

In the Romulan Tal Shiar organization, a Colonel wears a collar insignia of a gold triangle with two crescents lined up against it.

From Memory Alpha -- the free Star Trek reference


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