Commodore is a former
rank and a current honorary title in the
United States Navy and the
United States Coast Guard with an intricate history. Because the
U.S. Congress was originally unwilling to authorize any admirals in its service until 1862, considerable importance was attached to the office of commodore. Like its
Royal Navy counterpart at the time, the
U.S. Navy commodore was not a higher rank, but a temporary assignment for captains, as
Herman Melville wrote in
White Jacket, 1849,
Commodore was established as a temporary rank in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was discontinued in 1945, its previous incumbents having all been advanced to Rear Admiral. Nearly forty years later, it was reinstated as an official rank with a paygrade of O-7, replacing the previously titled Rear Admiral (lower half), who was paid as an O-7, but who wore the insignia of an O-8. In 1984, following years of objections and complaints by the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, the rank of commodore was reinstated in the Navy and the Coast Guard. Later that year, the O-7 paygrade in the US Navy and US Coast Guard was again redesignated as Rear Admiral (lower half), but with the single star and single broad stripe insignia.
The practice was not reserved to captains in the earlier days. Captain Isaac Hull, chafing at not being able to progress further in rank, wrote in 1814 that, if no admirals were to be authorized, something should be done to prevent "every midshipman that has command of a gunboat on a separate station taking upon himself the name of Commodore."
Eventually the title of commodore was defined more strictly, and was reserved for captains so designated by the Navy Department, although the practice of retaining the title for life added some confusion. In 1857, Congress established the grade of Flag Officer. This generic title was intended "to promote the efficiency of the Navy," but differed little from the previous practice. Like the courtesy-title commodores, "flag officers" reverted to captain once their squadron command assignment was completed.
