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Rank insignia of the Rebel Alliance

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The rank insignia of the Rebel Alliance were badges of military rank used by officers of the Rebel Alliance armed forces. The badges utilized by the Alliance around the time of the Battle of Yavin and the Battle of Hoth consisted of a series of one to five colored dots raised from the surface of a square chrome plaque. These badges were usually worn over the right breast of the service uniform.

General Jan Dodonna with one style of insignia in 0 BBY.

Pilot Keyan Farlander's uniform in 0 BBY

General Crix Madine wore a different style of rank badge in 4 ABY.

General Airen Cracken wore both styles in 7 ABY.

By the time of the Battle of Endor, certain officers in the Rebel military wore a different style of rank badges. In contrast to the earlier, colorful badges, these badges were dull, gray and metallic.

The older version of the insignia was not made obsolete, however, even after the formation of the New Republic. As head of New Republic Intelligence, Airen Cracken wore both styles of rank badge on his uniform.

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[edit] Behind the scenes

The primary sources for the "domino" style of Rebel insignia are Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

A comparative table of these Rebel insignia is tabulated in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook published by West End Games. This source has several problems: it contains only four "Army designations" (General, Colonel, Major, and Lieutenant), and two "Navy designations" (Commander and Captain.) It also implies that in the Rebel Fleet, commanders outrank captains, although the opposite is true in real-world navies. Some rank badges seen on screen are omitted from this table, while others are not seen on film.

The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook also says that rank badges with red pips were exclusive to army ranks, while blue pips were used to denote fleet ranks. However, Vanden Willard wears a plaque with four red pips and one blue pip in the center in A New Hope.

Other explanations of the rank badges of the Rebel Alliance are popular among fans. Most of these extrapolate between the badges seen on screen to create new badges which have not been seen in any canonical source, and assume that fleet and surface officers may wear badges with blue pips, red pips, or both. They also generally assume that the fleet and surface ranks in the Rebel Alliance are the same as in contemporary armies and navies. Curtis Saxton's Star Wars Technical Commentaries website promotes one such fan-produced scheme. Another is listed in the following table. The badges shown below which are not from the movies are conjectural extrapolations.

Navy Rank Alliance Army Insignia
Admiral General
Vice Admiral Lieutenant General
Rear Admiral Major General
Commodore Brigadier General
Captain Colonel
Commander Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant Commander Major
Lieutenant Captain
Sub-Lieutenant First Lieutenant
Ensign Second Lieutenant

By the time of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the Alliance appears to have changed to a new system insignia, consisting of purely gray metallic badges with various geometrical shapes attached. Star Wars Technical Commentaries speculates that the earlier, colorful badges were derived from Alderaan's military traditions, and were designed to be easily recognized by Humans. On the other hand, the new style may be derived from the Mon Calamari forces, and thus designed to be easily distinguishable by their vision. No source has attempted to systematically explain these badges, though the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook identifies the squared horseshoe-shaped badges worn on the collar by Lando Calrissian and Crix Madine as "General's Collar Insignia."

However, several sources set after Return of the Jedi, including the Rogue Squadron comics, show domino-style rank insignia still in use by the New Republic military.

Another version of the Alliance's rank insignia appears in the game X-Wing. The ranks are displayed on the wearer's shoulders, and their medallions are displayed on their chests. The ranking system appears as:

Rank Insignia
General
Commander
Captain
Lieutenant
Flight Officer
Flight Cadet

This ranking system from the game is considered to be non-canon.

[edit] Further notes

Although the standard Navy/Army separation of ranks is typically assumed, and would make the most logical sense, it should be noted that in several instances in the Alliance and its successors, there is some blurring of the Navy/Army line. Perhaps most notably, at the Battle of Endor, General Lando Calrissian commands a starfighter element - presumably part of the Alliance Starfleet - in the attack on the Death Star II, and appears to act in a role directly subordinate to Admiral Ackbar. During the First Battle of Mon Calamari (Galactic Civil War), Generals Wedge Antilles and Calrissian commanded the New Republic fleet in defense of Calamari from the Star Destroyer Emancipator. These and other examples suggest a possible "merged" command structure and ranking system for the Alliance and successors, with admirals taking precedence over generals and so forth. However, it is possible that these scenarios came about by emergency, there are technical quandaries under which an Army commander may direct a Navy unit, or there could be another explanation for this peculiarity of the Alliance chain of command.


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[edit] Sources

[edit] Appearances

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[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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