The rank insignia of the Rebel Alliance were badges of military rank used by officers of the Rebel Alliance military and the later New Republic military. The badges utilized by the Alliance members at the Battle of Yavin and the Battle of Hoth consisted of a series of colored pips that were raised from the surface of a square chrome plaque. These badges were usually worn over the right breast of the service uniform. Starfighter pilots were sometimes seen wearing metal or cloth badges of similar design on their shoulders instead.

Parallel to these most distinctive Alliance rank insignias were a totally different style of chest and collar insignia. These insignia were grey, metallic and technical in appearance, and were seen worn by some Army and Special Forces officers.

Contents 1 History 2 Behind the scenes 3 Sleeve Patches 4 Inconsistencies and Controversies 5 Speculations 6 Appearances 7 Sources 8 Notes and references 9 See also 10 External links

HistoryEdit

The Alliance was in its early years spread across the galaxy and consisted of more or less independent cells. This meant that uniforms, equipment and rank insignias were hard to standardize. Much of the equipment used by the Alliance was donated or by other means acquired from various civil and military organizations. The planet of Alderaan and the Royal House of Alderaan were notable contributors to the rebellion. Many Alliance officers and troopers could be seen wearing the distinct uniforms and rank insignias of Alderaanian forces, even though they were not commanded or lead by Alderaan.

After the Destruction of Alderaan, or perhaps because of it, many units of the Alliance and later the New Republic seemed to favor Alderaanian style rank plaques. Seen across the galaxy and across units, some differences in design and color were present. Even the number of colored pips symbolizing a specific rank could vary from unit to unit. There were many consistencies though. Army and Starfighter officers mostly wore red or golden pips in their insignia, while fleet officers mostly wore blue pips. The general and admiral rank was also mostly shown by 5 pips. The commander rank was mostly shown with 3 pips. A captain could wear insignia with the number of pips ranging from 2 to 5. It must be taken take into account that the Alliance, like many other militaries, had a wide range of ranks and functions that could be addressed, regardless of the true rank, as admiral/general, commander or captain.

Behind the scenesEdit

The primary G-canon (George Lucas Canon) 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.

The primary C-canon (Expanded Universe/Continuity Canon) sources that have shed light on the Rebel insignia system are the computer games Star Wars: X-wing, Star Wars: X-wing Alliance and the role-playing game sourcebook Rebel Alliance Sourcebook.

The MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies also implemented an item collection called 'Alliance Officer Rank Collection'. This system appears to be consistent with the one given by Rebel Alliance Sourcebook.^[1] It consisted of the following items: Alliance Lieutenant Rank, Alliance Captain Rank, Alliance Major Rank, Alliance Commander Rank, Alliance Colonel Rank and Alliance General Rank.

In the first-person PC shooter game Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, an officer who is addressed as "commander", wears an insignia with 9 red pips. The game is set in the year 10 ABY, which is well into the time age of the New Republic. It is unknown if this "commander" held a high military rank similar to sector commander, or if he was just address to as an officer commanding his forces.

Star Wars: X-wing	Star Wars: X-wing Alliance	Star Wars Movies
General	General	General Dodonna
Commander	Commander	General Rieekan
Captain	Lieutenant Commander	Evram Lajaie
Lieutenant	Captain	Major Derlin
Flight Officer	Lieutenant	Echo Base controller
Flight Cadet	Lieutenant Junior Grade	General Willard
	Flight Officer	Bob Hudsol
	Flight Cadet	Captain Antilles
	Recruit	Commander Skywalker

Rank Insignia displayed in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook:

All of the above Expanded Universe sources imply that commanders rank above captains. This is not consistent with the real-life British and American navies^[2][3], but it is consistent with all Scandinavian^[4][5][6][7] and other European^[8][9] navies, and therefore represents a fully plausible ranking system.

Sleeve PatchesEdit

Many of the Rebel soldiers stationed at Echo Base on Hoth wore cloth grid patterned patches on their right shoulders. These patches were colored differently from person to person, but the majority of the infantry troops as well as the indoor technicians wore the same patches. It is possible that these patches were a form of rank insignia. Mostly it was personnel of lower rank who wore this kind of insignia instead of the officers’ normal metal chrome plaques. But as exceptions to the rule there were a few officers, even Commander Luke Skywalker, who wore them. Skywalker was the only officer who wore both the standard officer’s insignia in conjunction with the cloth sleeve patch.

A common Rebel trooper	A superior in the Echo Base trenches	Sergeant Major Trey Callum
A common Rebel technician	A soldier in the command center	Lieutenant Navander

The infantry troopers all had patches with red and blue grid fillings, while the indoor base personnel and technicians had red and orange fillings. As the low ranking troopers and technicians only had a low number of grid fillings, it would seem logical that color fillings increased with rank. Every shoulder patch seen at Echo Base had grids of 3 rows and 3 columns.

It is noteworthy that every single patch also had the same two top right cells filled with an X mark surrounded by a border outline. On a distance these cells would appear grey compared to the other more white cells. As everybody had these markings it could be speculated that this was a symbol or number of their common organizational unit. It is also possible that the rank insignia system simply did not allow these cells to be filled out, and therefore produced in s “greyed” out fashion.

Inconsistencies and ControversiesEdit

The movies and their following end-credits chain a few Alliance titles and ranks together with their appropriate insignias. But even within the movies there are inconsistencies and controversies.

The Alliance 'General' Willard is seen with one 4 red and 1 blue pip in the middle of his insignia, while the other Alliance 'generals' all have 5 red pips. It has been speculated that the unusual rank insignia indicates command over a combined surface and fleet force. Another possibility is that the insignia represents a title above or below a normal general, like a grand general or lieutenant general.

Raymus Antilles, the Alderaanian 'captain' of the royal corvette Tantive IV, is seen wearing a rank insignia with 5 blue pips, implying that he is an officer of high status. Explanations could range from Antilles just 'captaining' his ship while actually holding a higher rank, a differences between his Alliance rank and his official Alderaanian rank, to him actually wearing a standard rebel captain insignia. Juno Eclipse, 'captain' of the Alliance frigate Salvation is also depicted wearing a rank insignia with 5 blue pips on her belt.

SpeculationsEdit

Many explanations of the rank badge system of the Rebel Alliance and New Republic have been created by Star Wars fans. Most of them extrapolate between the badges seen on screen to create new badges which have not been seen in any canonical source. Some systems assume that the fleet uses only blue pips, while the army and starfighter corps use red. Other systems allow all branches to use both colors. They generally all assume that the amount of colored pips increases with higher rank. They also generally assume that the rank designations in the Rebel Alliance are the same as in contemporary navies and armies. Curtis Saxton's Star Wars Technical Commentaries website promotes one such fan-produced scheme.

It is also speculated that the Alliance may have gradually out phased the "domino" style insignia seen in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. In Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi all Alliance rank insignias are of a completely different design, consisting of 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.

AppearancesEdit

• Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (First appearance)
•  Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
• Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
• Star Wars: X-wing
• Star Wars: X-wing Alliance
• Rebel Alliance Sourcebook
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith

SourcesEdit

• Wanted by Cracken

Notes and referencesEdit

See alsoEdit

• Rank insignia of the Galactic Empire

External linksEdit

• Rebel Alliance Insignia on Star Wars Technical Commentaries
• Mon Calamari: Vision on Star Wars Technical Commentaries (discusses possible Mon Calamari derivation of Endor insignia)