US Navy Uniform

Commedore has been a rank though hasn't it? I seem to recall it being so in the RN and possibly I the USN at some point (age of sail?)?

 

The Commodore rank was reinstated in April '43 and discontinued again in 1947.

 

What happened to those who held the rank of Commodore when it was discontinued in 1947? Did they get discontinued too?

 

The rank and title of commodore is one of those little oddities one finds in the USN. One could, even today, as a commander, command a destroyer squadron; as such one is addressed as commodore, but wears the rank insignia of a commander.

During the war, others actually held the rank of commodore, also by virtue of their assignment. The thing to remember was that the rank went with the job. So, when no longer in a commodore’s slot, that is a slot where one is authorized to wear the single star of a commodore, one reverts to one’s regular, though probably temporary, rank. Arleigh Burke, for example, became Mitscher’s chief-of-staff as a captain. I presume some politics became involved as Mitscher’s counterpart, McCain, had Wilder Baker as his CoS and Baker was rear admiral. Mitscher could have had a rear admiral move into his CoS slot, but he wanted to keep Burke. Burke at the time was not senior enough for promotion to rear admiral, so he was made commodore while serving as Mitscher’s CoS. Like any other commodore, upon transfer, he reverted to captain (clearly shows up as such in the 1947 register) as also did any commodore still sporting a star when the rank was abolished. So, Arliegh Burke on 1 July 1947 was a captain with a date of rank, temporary, of 1 May 1943; his permanent rank was commander, a date of rank of 30 June 1942.
Another illustration would be one Leslie Gehres. A sample of his wartime assignments:
Commander - COMPatWing4 NAS Seattle – 6 May 1942
Commander - COMTU 16.1.2 - 5/11/1943
Captain - Date of rank from 1 Jul 1942 USN Register – 24 May 1942
Captain - COMTU 16.1.2 – 24 May 1943
Captain - Date of rank from 1 Jul 1943 USN Register – 24 May 1942
Commodore - Date of rank from 1 Jul 1944 USN Register – 5 July 1943
Commodore - COMFAW-4 /COMTU 16.1.2 NAS Kodiak – 5 July 1943
Captain – Commanding USS Franklin (CV-13) – 7 November 1944
Captain - Date of rank (revised) from 1 Jul 1945 USN Register – 17 June 1942
Note he reverted to captain when he moved from the COMFAW-4 job to commander of USS Franklin, a captain's slot. On 1 July 1947 Leslie Gehres was a captain with a date of rank, temporary, as noted in the 1945 register, and of permanent rank of commander from 1 July 1939.

So, the simple answer is for any commodore, that is one in a slot that permited the wearing of the single star, still wandering about when the rank, but not the title, abolished - and I really do not think there were any by then, would have reverted to captain.

 

Ok, that makes sense to me now.

But to Commodore Decker....



I'm....not....a....commodore....any....more????

 

One of my favorite episodes and performances from the original Star Trek series.